


We Deal in Lead, Friend

by purplenerd777



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, M/M, The Magnificent Seven AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-13
Updated: 2018-08-13
Packaged: 2019-06-26 20:23:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 12
Words: 26,648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15670629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/purplenerd777/pseuds/purplenerd777
Summary: Gabriel Reyes, previous commander of Blackwatch, has been hired to defend a peaceful town of omnics and humans from Talon. Knowing that he needs help he goes to collect three friends and comes back with six. His team? A hacker with a personal interest in getting revenge against Talon, His protegee, and his protegee's lover, a sniper that acts like an older sister, a knight with a strong sense of jutice, and the one man he never expected to work with again. In between training villagers how to fight and preparing the town for the incoming invasion, Gabriel must overcome whatever he and Jack Morrison once had...





	1. The Hero

**Author's Note:**

> My fic for the 2018 R76 BB. This was a fic idea that had been rattling around in my head ever since I saw the Mag7 remake and this BB was the push I needed to write it, please enjoy <3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You ain't ever seen a soldier like me  
> 1-2-3   
> I'm a vigilante  
> 4-5-6  
> Kiss that ass goodbye  
> When I pull the gun  
> Then somebody gonna die

The quiet town was on the outskirts of even the boondocks. Nothing lived out here. 

Well, Gabe supposed, that wasn’t quite a fair assessment. The governments of the world had been calling for a while to support Omnic Rights; and that included calling them living. 

But, call them what you want, there wasn’t even an omnic about in the town. It was like the stories in the Holovids he used to watch when he was a kid. Either the tin cans were hiding out of fear of him, or they all had already moved on despite hiring his help. Which would be undoubtedly stupid since he wasn’t cheap.

During his musings he drove his beat up pick up to the centre of the town and left the engine idling as he took a deep breath. This was just a job. He didn’t have to like it, and even he wasn’t prejudiced enough to decline money just because it was being given to him by soulless robots. 

Who destroyed his town.

Who still haunted his dreams.

He was about to put his truck back into drive but was stopped short by a beeping straight out of his nightmares. He almost drew his shotguns there and then, but was stopped by a calming presence.

“Bastion, allow our guest to get accustomed to us before asking those sorts of things.” Gabriel looked out of the dusty window of his truck to the sight of two omnics waiting patiently… and a bird flying around their heads.

Gabe took a deep breath before cutting the engine and getting out of the cab of his truck. His feet kicking up dust as he landed.

“Greetings, I am Zenyatta, and this is Bastion.” The omnic bowed his head. 

“Reyes.” Gabe looked around what he assumed was the town square. “Where’s the rest of your town?” 

Bastion chirped a little and the bird rested on its shoulder. Gabe eyed the thing suspiciously, waited with baited breath to see if the eye sensor would go red.

“Everyone else wanted to wait before meeting you. I am sure you can understand that some are weary of The Hero of The Omnic Crisis.” Zenyatta’s faceplate didn’t move, probably couldn’t, but the voice seemed sympathetic.

“Come, I shall take you to the temple. You’ll be able to keep your things there and that’s where I’ve requested people to come for the meeting. It is a neutral space, and many feel more at peace there.” The omnic, although then Gabriel could guess that the garments it was wearing were meant to be monk’s robes, turned around and floated towards a simple building down the road. 

“Town doesn’t seem too bad for a place that’s being harassed by bandits.” Gabe observed as he hoisted his travel pack higher on his shoulders. 

“Efi, our town’s mechanic, has been doing her best to keep the town standing, but there is only so much she can do.” Zenyatta explained, as the Bastion unit trotted ahead of them, seemingly holding a conversation with the little yellow bird nesting on its shoulder. 

“I see.” Gabe swallowed some, this was no time to be unprofessional. “Has… Has anyone left yet?”

At this, the calming presence Gabe had quickly came to ignore diminished. “Not many, but some have passed into The Iris during our struggle. That is why I have called you here.”

Gabe may have been known for being callous and heartless, but he said nothing but a muttered, “My condolences.” 

“It is no worries, he is at peace now.” Zenyatta turned to it’s human counterpart, the orbs around its neck glowed a friendly yellow and the presence returned. “Do you need food or rest before the town meeting starts, or would you rather get started?” 

“Just let me put my pack down and I can start whenever you’re ready.” Gabe replied, relaxing slightly in the monk’s presence despite his better judgement.

“No worries.” The monk turned towards the other omnic, “Bastion, could you please gather everyone? Let them know Mr. Reyes is here.” 

The Bastion unit gave a jaunty wave and some happy beeps before it turned back to the center of town. 

“I can show you your room. We’ll have the meeting here.” The omnic gestured to a large room with no chairs, but was clearly used for meetings and gatherings. “This room is used for guests.” It was a small and bare room, but it still beat sleeping in the bed of his truck. 

“Do not worry about food, we have human townsfolk who have offered to provide meals for you.” Zenyatta backed out the room. At least the monk wasn’t stupid. Gabe wouldn’t attack anyone who was paying him for a job, but he hadn’t survived the Crisis for nothing. 

“Thank you.” Gabe nodded, as the monk left the room.

“I will send someone to collect you when we are ready. Please relax until then, and feel free to explore if you wish.” With that the floating omnic left.

Gabe forced himself to relax, his tightened and stressed posture collapsed and he let out a rush of breath. He wasn’t as tense as he had expected to be, but then, Gabriel supposed it had something to do with the monk.

Gabe spent the time before the meeting checking information he had on the area and letting himself rest for a bit on the pallet that served as a bed. It wasn’t comfortable but he had been driving for hours straight and it felt nice to lay down without something poking into his side.

What might have been an hour later there was a knocking on the wall next to the entrance to his room.

“I’m sorry to interrupt but everyone has- Commander?” A tinny voice called out. It wasn’t quite that of an omnic but it wasn’t organic either. 

Gabriel sat up and watched as a silver and green cyborg approached him. “I don’t go by that title anymore. Haven’t for a while-“ The cyborg removed his faceplate and Gabe was struck silent, probably looked like an idiot as his mouth hung open. “Genji?”

“Commander, I hadn’t realised Master Zenyatta was going to recruit you, I mean you are the best choice, but it is certainly a surprise that you even took the contract.” Genji’s scarred face broke into a smile as he bounced on his toes. 

Gabe figured he should probably speak at some point, but instead he stood and walked over to the cyborg and pulled him into a rough hug. “If you tell anyone I did this, my reputation as a hardass will be put on the line and I’ll make you run laps.”

Genji laughed uproariously in a way Gabe had never heard before, “You have no power over me anymore, Reyes.” The younger man pulled out of the hug, giving his old commander a pat on his back before he started down the hall.

“I’d find a way.” Gabe huffed as he followed.

“Master Zenyatta would probably encourage it; for someone who doesn’t have organs, he certainly follows the mantra of mental and physical health.” Genji laughed as the two approached the meeting room Zenyatta had pointed out earlier.

“Smart… man?” Gabe agreed awkwardly. 

Just like that Genji stopped in his tracks and turned around, “You will help won’t you? I understand you must still hold some prejudices, and while they are valid, I will not hesitate to cut you down if you disrespect Master Zenyatta or the others living here.” The light on Genji’s faceplate narrowed as he stepped threateningly towards Gabriel.

Gabe threw his hands up in surrender, “Stand down, kid. I’m on my own little redemption arc right now.” He sighed. “Looking to atone for some of the things I’ve done. Your friends don’t have anything to worry about.”

Genji’s visor glowed a less dangerous green. “Good.”

”Now why was I called here, if a dragon of the Shimada Clan is residing in the town?” Gabe asked to Zenyatta as he sat down on the floor, his knee and back protesting slightly as he did so.

“Genji is but one man, and he has left the fight behind. We needed someone who knew how to fight an army.” Zenyatta answered calmly.

“I’m only one man.” Gabe shot back, keeping his tone friendly, as he looked around at the rest of the gathered town’s people.

The Bastion unit, Bastion, Zenyatta had called it, was sat in a corner feeding seeds to the bird on his shoulder. A family of humans was sitting next to a large… repurposed OR-14? He hoped it was repurposed. Another omnic which looked to be of a model similar to Zenyatta was leaning against a wall near the exit. 

“Is that everyone, Master?” Genji asked from Gabriel’s left.

The omnic made an approximation of a sigh. “Yes, it appears so. Let’s start.”

“Greetings! I am Orisa, programmed to help Efi with the repairs of the town! You seem anxious, but there is no need to fear, I am not like the OR-14’s of The Uprising. Efi crafted me from a broken OR-15, a bodyguard model.” The OR- Orisa wiggled in place not unlike a small dog. 

The little girl sat next to her giggled into her palm.“Orisa, you’re rambling.” She turned to face Gabe, her bright brown eyes twinkling in mirth, “Don’t mind her, she’s not even one yet!”

The man who Gabe supposed was Efi’s father ruffled the girl’s thick hair. “She’s your mechanic?” Gabe asked incredulously and Efi’s face deepened into a furious blush.

”You wanna see me in action?” She was on her way to standing up when her mother pulled her back down.

”Efi, this man is a hero, show him some respect.” She chided.

“He should show Efi some respect.” The omnic by the exit huffed.

”Lynx-“ Zenyatta tried to cut in calmly.

“If he isn’t going to show even a human respect, how should we trust him to protect us?” Lynx pushed themself off the wall and walked out of the meeting.

“I apologise, Lynx Seventeen is still young and angry.” Zenyatta tried to smooth over.

Gabe waved it off then stood up and approached Efi who gazed up at him from her mother’s lap defiantly. “I didn’t mean to disrespect you, Hermana, I was just surprised you built Orisa all by yourself.” He attempted to soften his mouth into an approximation of a smile, but he wasn’t sure what good it would do as he felt his scars stretch.

“It’s fine. Master Zeny is right, Lynx is just a stupid teenager.” Efi’s parents laughed around her and Orisa joined in, though probably not knowing what the humans were laughing at.

Gabe turned back to where the Omnic Monk was floating above the cushion on the floor. “Now, fill me in. What am I up against?” 


	2. The Job

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "So you seek revenge?"  
> "I seek Righteousness... But I'll take Revenge."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gabe learns more about the job.

“It started about six months ago. Maximilien had finished building his hotel and quickly all sorts of unsavoury characters began staying there.” Zenyatta began.

“Maximilien?”

“An omnic with an unclean past. “ Genji’s vents released a hiss of air.

“He started putting up members of Junkertown gang. But this was not the most serious.” Zenyatta continued, his voice, while modulated still shook slightly. 

“One of his ‘friends’ demanded that we hand over rights of the town so they could rebuild the town into a utopia. And the Junkers began to demand payment for protection.” Genji scoffed.

“Even though we already had OR-15’s.” Efi called out from across the room.

“When we refused a friend of Maximilien came to the monastery to demand payment and our surrender.” Efi’s mother put in.

“My brother, Mondatta, met this Akande and refused to pay. We would not pay gangs and terrorists for ‘protection’ and we already have the perfect utopia for omnics and humans.” Zenyatta’s fist grasped his prayer beads.

Genji put a hand on the monk’s shoulder. “A month later Mondatta was shot by a sniper. When we calculated the trajectory we found that the shooter was in a room in Maximilien’s hotel.” Gabriel could see Genji’s anger despite his mask. “I wanted to go over there and raid the hotel for the shooter, but Master Zenyatta forbade me.”

“Efi then built me and I have been monitoring the people staying in Maximilien’s hotel while I help Efi with repairs around town that his customers created.” Orisa’s eyes flashed red for a brief moment before turning into triangles from an emoticon. Gabe wasn’t assured the way he assumed the omnic was hoping he would be.

Bastion let out a series of beeps which Efi then translated, “And now they’re saying that we’re in Junkertown territory and Talon is still demanding we pay the debts to the loans the the gang. Maximilien doesn’t care cause either way the shiny bastard will earn money.”

A reprimanding beeping from Bastion and a scandalised “Efi!” from the girl’s parents let Gabe know which part the girl added. 

“Then I told Master Zenyatta that I knew some people who could help from my time in the Shimada Clan and in Blackwatch. But I never expected you would answer the call, Commander.” Genji turned towards Gabriel. 

Gabe shrugged then dragged a hand down his scarred face, mussing up his beard as he did so. “You mentioned an Akande. Are you saying Akande Ogundimu is involved?”

“You know of him?” Zenyatta asked, the orbs around him began to settle down.

“Yeah, there’s a rumour that he’s the new head of Talon, and he’s definitely gotten ahold of the Doomfist gauntlet if my sources are to be believed.”

“The Doomfist Gauntlet? That must have been how he destroyed the OR-15’s.” Efi muttered to herself. While Gabe had no doubt the girl was serious before this series of events, but, he suspected she had to grow up faster than she should have.

There was a silence around the meeting room, even Bastion’s bird hadn’t chirped in a while. Gabe let out a weary sigh. “I’ll do it. I’m going to need more manpower, but I’ll protect your town.” 

There was a silence then everyone broke out into wide grins and Bastion began to whistle happily.

“We don’t have money to pay you.” A voice called out that Gabe remembered belonged to Lynx.

“I’m sure this Maximilien will have credits in his hotel. I’ll take my pay from there.” Gabe 

replied, standing up, masking the pain from his knees and the reason he finally agreed to take the job. 

“Men like you don’t just help out poor towns anymore. Certainly not the Hero of the Omnic Crisis. Not without something to gain.” Lynx sneered as they approached Gabe, looking down at him.

“I have my reasons.” Gabe admitted though he was proud to say that his poker face held, if the omnic turning away from him and scoffing was anything to go by. 

“I have served under Gabriel, Lynx, he may have his prejudices but he will do the job.” Genji soothed stepping in between Gabriel and Lynx. 

“Perhaps,” Zenyatta began, floating just behind Gabe “My student can go and see if any of his contacts would be willing to help Commander Reyes.”

Gabriel, sighed, he was afraid the monk would offer that as a solution. “No offense Master Zenyatta, but I need to be able to trust the people I’m working with. And while I trust Genji, those that he knows in the bounty hunting field won’t trust me.”

“Then he can go with you and make sure you aren’t hiring anyone who would take advantage of us.” Lynx butted in.

Gabriel fought the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose at the oncoming headache he could feel brewing behind his eyes. Instead, he took off his beanie and ran his hand through his curls before putting it back on. “I’ll allow it if Genji wants to come.”

Gabriel could feel the excitement coming off of the cyborg. He may have gotten a new body and face mask that covered his face, but his tells were the same from when he was a new recruit about to go on his first mission. “I would be honoured to.” 

Well that was one thing that had changed.

“We’ll headout in the morning, then.” Gabe informed the room, nodding at Lynx as he walked past the young omnic and towards his room. 

Nobody followed Gabe as he made his way back to his room, though he wasn’t surprised to see Efi standing outside of it as he arrived. “Shortcuts?” Gabe guessed as he looked down at the girl. 

“Only if you’re small enough.” The young mechanic beamed at him, the bright teeth of her smile a bright contrast to her dark skin.

Gabe had a feeling she hadn’t been smiling much lately.

“So, what do you need?” Gabe asked, wondering whether he should kneel again to be able to easily let her look at him in the eyes. 

“I just wanted to let you know that you don’t have to worry. Orisa will be enough to protect us until you get back.” Gabe wanted to pull the small genius into a tight hug like his older sister used to do for him when he was upset. “Master Zenyatta told us all to stay in the monastery unless we have to go out, and most of the gang members won’t attack it.”

“Ok?” Gabriel figured there had to be something else. The girl couldn’t really expect him to be worried about a job.

“Here.” She shoved a small metal circle into his hand. Her deep brown eyes meeting his own. “It’s a communicator. Anija has one built in his helmet, but this will help in case you have an emergency and need to split up. Master Zenyatta, Lynx, and I all have access to a com that we can keep in contact with.”

“Thank you, _Hermana_.” Gabe smiled and slipped the communicator into his pocket. Just as he was about to enter the room he turned back to the young mechanic. “You should take someone with you besides Orisa when you go out into town.” Efi began to protest. “Everyone should, make sure people know to look after themselves before I get back.” 

Charged with a task, Efi nodded determinedly before walking away from his room. As he watched her go he heard the silent footsteps on an omnic approaching.

When he turned around he was greeted with Genji’s unmasked face.

Gabriel opened the door to his room and allowed Genji to enter first. “Who are you going to recruit?” Genji asked as he settled down onto a cushion on the floor.

“Some of the old guard. Ana goes by The Shrike now and does some bounty-hunting. Reinhardt travels and protects people that need help, this seems right up his alley.”

Genji laughed softly as he nodded. “He sends me letters, apparently he took down a dragon?”

Gabe hummed as he sat down on the pallet. “I was going to get Jesse as well, we could use his sharpshooting skills and his cowboy sense of justice.”

Genji nodded, but Gabe could see the name that could begin to form on his lips, “I don’t even know where he is.” Gabriel snapped, a little more harshly than he had intended.

“I didn’t say anything.” Genji raised his hands in a placating manner.

“You didn’t need to. Anyway, it’s not going to happen.” 

“Fine. I’m sure Ana knows where he is anyway, we can pick him up after we get her.” Gabe ground his teeth at that, but didn’t say anything more.

When Gabe didn’t say anything else, Genji stood up and made his way to the door. “I’ll let master Zenyatta know, and gather supplies. I’ll see you tomorrow at dawn, Commander.”

“Stop calling me that!” Gabe called as the cyborg made his way out of the room. He was left alone in his room feeling sore about the title and the relations it brought with it. 


	3. The Lancer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "How many you got so far?"  
> "You and me."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gabe and Genji set out to find an old friend who can help.

It’s funny how these things always happen at dawn. Master Zenyatta was floating outside the temple gates as Gabe stepped out into the dim light. The orbs around the omnic floated in a rhythm Gabriel couldn’t understand.

“More of our town’s people left this morning, I was just seeing them off and decided to meditate until your and Genji’s departure.” Zenyatta explained as he straightened. 

“Why wouldn’t they just stay within the monastery until this all blows over.” Gabe asked Zenyatta, wanting the monk’s opinion of matters.

“They believed we are wasting your time and our money, what little we have.” The monk waved away Gabe’s protest about not wanting to take the  _ town’s _ money. “They decided to move on before there was an all out war. Do not worry, more than half of our town is still here, they just have yet move inside the temple.” 

The sound of silent footsteps kicking up dust alerted the two to Genji’s arrival. 

“We should get going, Ana moves around a lot and her last known location is already a few days old.” Gabriel said turning to face Genji.

“Master, please look after yourself while I am gone, Talon has shown that they are willing to do anything to get what they want, and I don’t trust the Junkers as far as I can throw them.” Genji said, his hand grasping Zenyatta’s shoulder.

“You should look after yourself as well, my pupil.” Zenyatta returned.

There was an awkward silence as omnic and cyborg spent a little too long gazing into each other’s eyes. Gabe allowed it to go on a while before he coughed quietly. “Do you have a ride Genji? I figured after we got Ana you two could go collect Reinhardt while I got McCree.” 

Genji shook his head. “But if Ana is still as prepared as she was during Overwatch, then I am sure she will have means of transportation.” 

Gabriel opened up the door to his truck and let Genji get in first. Then he turned back to Zenyatta, “We’ll be back in a week, try to convince more townspeople to move inside the temple’s wall while we’re gone.” 

“May the Iris embrace you.” Zenyatta bid in farewell and Gabe, in a strange mood that morning replied with a mumbled, “And you as well” before he slid into the driver's seat and shut the door of the truck. 

The damn thing gave two sputtered starts before finally staying on and Gabe backed out of the town and headed east, towards the rising sun. 

After a few moments of silence Genji broke it while still looking out the window. “Is there a reason you and Morrison are no longer talking?”

Gabe felt the urge to stop the truck and demand Genji ride the way to Ana on the roof but he refrained himself with a tense sigh. “I thought everyone in Overwatch knew why.” He finally bit out.

“That may be true, but if you remember I was never truly part of Overwatch, and I left before it shut down, which I imagine is when you two had your falling out.” Genji replied turning to face Gabe’s face and watched the muscles in the older man’s jaw clench. 

“We had some disagreements.” 

Genji waited for Gabriel to continue, but the stubborn old bastard needed a push before he would say anything else. “What kind of disagreements?” 

Instead of answering Gabe jabbed the power button to the radio and fiddled with the knobs until a station with minimal static came on. When he had nothing else to distract himself with he finally said, “The kind that cause a building to explode.”

Genji let out a whistle that was muffled by his mask, but the intent was there. With that the two let the radio play between them without any comments for the rest of the day.

As the sun began to set Gabe pulled off to a rest stop.

“We sleeping here tonight?” Genji asked as Gabe opened the door to get out of the truck.

“What? No, I just need to refuel, and get some grub. We’ll drive a bit more and then pull off the road and sleep in the bed of the truck. That way Talon will have a harder time tracking us.” At that Genji scurried out of the truck behind him.

“You think Talon is going to track us?” Gabe popped open the tank and proceeded to fuel up as he fetched some money out of his back pocket and threw it at Genji who caught it out of the air deftly.

“Your master calls in ‘The Hero of the Omnic Crisis’ who then leaves with a townsperson, if Talon didn’t have someone trailing us they’d be very stupid.” Gabe jerked his head in the direction of the store. “Go in and get us some food. And ask the cashier if anyone’s heard of a sniper taking out bounties recently.” 

With that Genji made his way into the store, and Gabe was left with his own thoughts for the first time all day.

While he hadn’t wanted to resent Genji for making him remember Morrison, he couldn’t blame the kid, he would have been curious as well if he didn’t know what happened himself. He took a deep breath and clicked the nozzle handle once, twice more to get a little bit more fuel.

Just as he was paying the bill he saw Genji come out of the side entrance to the store, walking much more sedately than he had seen the cyborg do, even when with his master. It was then that Gabe saw four men rush out the front entrance and look around wildly.

“There’s the tin can bastard!” One of them shouted.

Gabe jumped back in the truck and started it again, swearing as the engine turned over once before it fully started. He took out one of his shotguns and shot the gun out of one of the ruffian’s hands before the grunt had time to fire off a shot. 

The truck lurched out of the parking lot as Genji reflected someone’s shot with his wakizashi before dashing behind a car.

Gabe attempted to drive straight enough for Genji to get in the bed without leaving an opening for one of the ruffians to shoot the tires out.

It wasn’t until he heard a thud and saw Genji’s silver body in the rearview mirror did he speed off, away from the town’s centre.

Genji opened up the cab’s rear window and placed the groceries on the middle seat before climbing in himself.

“That was fun, living in Numbani has not afforded me many battles.” Genji panted as he handed Gabe a pastry.

“What did you do?” Gabriel asked, slowing down enough to make a turn before speeding off again.

“They didn’t follow, you don’t have to attract more attention.” Genji chuckled as he took off his face mask to eat. “I don’t know whether they were just anti-omnic, or anti- asking about a local hero, but as soon as I mentioned the Shrike they started following me.” He stuffed a handful of chips in his mouth before continuing, “Then I knocked over a display stand to cause confusion and slipped away, but they were pretty persistent.”

“That’s one way to describe it.” Gabe slowed the truck down. “Start looking for a place to camp for the night.” The cab was silent save for the sounds of packages being opened and the cyborg eating, but then Genji pointed to a pathway off the road which led into a seeming dead-end into the woods.

Gabe pulled off and killed the engine and the headlights. “We should cover the entrance.”

“People may notice that the path is gone.” Genji suggested, which Gabriel had to agree with. 

“Fair point.” Gabe nodded and got out of the truck, Genji close behind. “I’ll take first watch, I’ll wake you halfway through the night, and you can sleep in the truck tomorrow. We should be close to where Ana was, but I was hoping to get confirmation on her location in that town.” Gabe sighed and ran a hand through his hair. 

“I’m sure we’ll find her.” Genji assured before leaning against the back of the bed and the green glow of his body dimmed.

“Wish I could have as much faith as you kid.” Gabe muttered lowly to himself, as he put his beanie back on.

Three or four hours later, Gabe was just about to wake Genji for his shift before he heard a rustling in the trees. 

Quickly he drew his shotguns and kicked at Genji’s foot. Luckily the cyborg still had his Blackwatch skills and remained silent even as he jerked awake.

Mouthing, “we’ve got company” Gabe jumped off the bed of the truck and was about to venture further into the woods when he heard the crack of a rifle cry out in the previously silent night. 

“Son of a bitch.” Gabriel swore as he spun in place looking for where the shooter would have been.

Genji had drawn his sword and was in a defensive stance as the lights on his visor glowed red, probably some sort of night vision, if Gabe was forced to guess.

Then a body slumped down from the tree Gabe was standing under and Gabe was too shocked to move when another body jumped onto the roof of his truck. 

Genji whirled around on his heels and was about to release his shuriken before he fell backwards, snoring.

Gabriel rolled his eyes and holstered his shotguns. “Did you have to knock the kid out?” He called as he made his way over to the truck.

He couldn’t make out the figure, but there was only one person with aim like this who had a sleep dart to boot. 

“Mother knows best.” The hooded figure joked as she took off her mask. The night sky was still dark, and the moon was new, so there wasn’t much light to see by.

“Captain?” Genji asked groggily.

“Good to see that you worked out the dosage.” Gabriel said offering to help the shooter down from the hood of his truck. The poor thing had already been through a lot that day.

“I had to, do you know how many bounties want people alive nowadays, and don’t take, ‘My sedative was too strong, I’m working out a dosage’, for an answer?” She took Gabe’s hand, though she probably didn’t need it, and stepped down gracefully into the bed of the truck.

At which point, when she was level with Gabriel she grabbed him by the ear and pulled him down to her eye level. “Ow, Ana! What the hell?”

“Five years, Gabriel and not one letter, or call. Then all of a sudden you come looking for me with a Talon trail?” He made to cut in but Ana continued on, as if he wasn’t about to say anything. “How many times must I drag you out of the messes you create?” 

“I had the trail handled.” Gabe replied sullenly as his old friend let him go and she turned to the cyborg still lying on his back.

“To be fair, Captain, my town hired Gabriel to help us out of a mess, and we are out recruiting people to help.” Genji explained, his smug tone softening Ana’s expression even as it made Gabe roll his eyes. 

“How many do you have so far?” Ana asked jumping out of the truck to inspect the fallen body.

“One, if you don't want to help me out of a mess.” Gabe answered, leaning against the side of the truck.

“How many of them are there?” 

“Depends.” Gabe shrugged.

Ana covered the fallen body with some detritus. “On what?”

“If Ogundimu realised I’m the one they enlisted to help and sends more than just Junkertown to the place.” Gabe replied.

Ana sighed and turned to face her old friends. “You can never take the simple jobs, can you?” She asked, sounding exasperated, but her face was fond.

“You know me. So, are you in?” Gabe asked.

“Has it really been that long, Gabriel? Of course I’m in. I’ll just have to get some supplies out of my safe house then we can go.” 

When Ana disappeared into the night, Gabe closed his eyes and attempted to get some rest before she came back. 

Gabe was brought out of his half-conscious resting state when he heard the sound of an engine coming closer. He was stopped from drawing his shotguns out when Genji offered a, “its Ana” as an explanation.

Gabe sat up straighter and took in the sight of the old fashioned Jeep Ana was driving. He made his way over to where she stopped a few feet away from his truck.

“I figured you could go pick up Reinhardt, and I’d recruit the  _ vaquero _ .” Gabe offered.

“Is that all you think we need?” Ana asked pointedly, the eyebrow over her eyepatch raising suspiciously.

“I told him he needs to get the Strike Commander.” Genji answered on Gabe’s behalf as the cyborg clambered into the passenger’s seat. 

“Good. That’s what I was going to say.” Ana smirked.

Gabe rolled his eyes, “I’m going to pick up McCree, you two go get Reinhardt, we’ll meet back up in three days,” he paused. “And we can talk about whether or not we’ll get Morrison then.” He turned to go back to his truck. “I highly doubt it though.” He muttered to himself, loud enough that the other two could hear. 

“We’ll see.” Ana laughed before backing out of the clearing. 

Gabriel watched her and Genji head north until the Jeep was out of sight. “God help us if we need that coward’s help.” He sighed before making his way back to his truck and driving west.  


	4. The Funny and Smart Guys

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Is it difficult?"  
> "Impossible."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gabe goes out to collect his old protegee, and gets two for the price of one.

It took Gabe half a day to make it to the last known location he had on the cowboy. Ever since the kid, man Gabe corrected himself, had gone off on his own, Gabe made a point to keep a general track of his location. 

Once he got to the general location to where he had last known Jesse was, it only took a couple of questions of the locals, and a few grumbled responses to track down the gunslinger. 

Gabe wasn’t surprised to find Jesse holding court over a game of poker. The cowboy was so focused on his game, though, that he didn’t notice the wraith of his former commander walk in.

Gabe could hear some grumbling complaints from other patrons. Most were from people who had thought they could out play McCree. Or Morricone as he was apparently going by in the small town.

Gabe had to at least appreciate that the cowboy took some care of his identity with the hefty bounty that was on his head.

He waved the bartender over and ordered himself a drink before he turned around to watch the cowboy try to bring the pot to him after another successful round it seemed. 

Or, it would have if one of the more drunk players at the table hadn’t decided enough was enough.

“What are you playing at Morricone?” The drunkard growled out, placing a hand on top of the pot. The drunk player placed a hand on their sidearm.

McCree, despite this, didn’t look too concerned. Which was cocky even for a man who still dressed like the Wild West still existed. 

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” McCree warned lowly. 

It was at this moment that the bartender came over and set Gabe’s drink down. “Settle down Raf, didn’t you see what happened to the last fella’s that accused him of cheating?” The bartender called to the table. 

“I can’t let some wanna be cowboy cheat me out of my money, Nic!” The man bellowed, his hand curling around his sidearm and bringing it out of the holster.

It was at that moment that an honest-to-god arrow came whistling through the bar and landed in Raf’s thigh. 

At first the man didn’t react, still staring down McCree, until McCree tipped his hat back and nodded appreciatively to the direction where the arrow came from. “Now, that don’t look none too pleasant, amigo.” McCree said affably. Raf seemed to finally realise the pain his leg was in and used the hand that had been stopping McCree from grabbing the pot, moved to grip his thigh, hollering in pain as he did so. 

“You bastard! You’ll pay for this you hear? Who fucking shoots a man over a poker game?” People who must have known Raf started to gather around him, and began to encourage the man to sit down and shut up.

“You were the one who went and touched his gun. Didn’t have to do that.” McCree calmly replied before downing his drink and making to move out of the bar. The money that had been in front of McCree was safely stowed away under the man’s serape.

Gabe sighed and downed his drink as well. It seemed McCree still hadn’t let go of that particular quirk yet. 

“You sonofabitch!” The man shouted. “I’ll show you what it means when I touch my gun!” The drunk drew his pistol, and pointed it at McCree.

“You don’t want to do that.” McCree muttered lowly, a dark and dangerous glint in his eyes.

“Who’s gonna stop me? I already got my gun, ain’t no bastard that fast of a draw!” The drunk’s friends were trying to pull him away, anything to make the man stop and think, but that wasn’t happening.

McCree just sighed and squared up into a stance. “Draw.” He said so lowly that Gabe wouldn’t have been able to pick the word out if he didn’t know McCree as well as he did.

But instead of the crack of McCree’s six shooter there was a movement over his shoulder, billowing the hair under his hat slightly. 

Raf, who had been tense before, then slumped over and fell to the ground despite the man’s friends who had had a grip on him. 

Looking down one could see, clear as day the arrow sticking out of the man’s chest.

McCree gazed around the room, “Anyone else wanna accuse me of cheatin’?” The rest of the patrons remained silent and refused to meet McCree’s gaze. While others were nervously and cautiously stepping out of sight of the windows.

McCree hummed then headed out through the front door, but not before leaving some of his money behind, mentioning it was for the damages. 

Gabe slipped out of the bar after McCree. “You running with someone nowadays?” Gabe asked, ducking before McCree could take a swipe at him.

Gabe’s hands were raised in front of him, his stance loose and a grin on his face that hurt his cheeks. “Reyes?” McCree wondered aloud. “Reyes, you old bastard what are you doin’ here?” McCree crowed before pulling Gabe into a bruising hug.

Gabe laughed and allowed the hug where otherwise he might have stiffened in the grasp. He gave McCree a pat on the back, once, twice, then pulled away and “accidentally” knocking the cowboy’s hat down his face as he did so.

McCree just gave a hearty chuckle before tipping his hat back into place with his index finger, a wild grin on his face, matching his old commander’s. “What’re you doin’ out here?” He asked, starting back down the steps of the bar, not waiting to see if Gabe would follow, knew the man would.

“I’ve got a job.” Gabe said, the two walking side by side towards the hotel in town.

“What kind of job?” McCree asked.

“The kind best talked about in private.” McCree rolled his eyes at Gabe’s answer. But he still motioned the man to follow him with a quick nod of his head they entered the hotel.

“It’ll be fine if my travelling companion listens in.” Gabe smiled softly as he heard the demand that was only phrased as a question.

“I trust you.” Gabe replied simply as McCree stopped in front of a door.

The cowboy rapped three times on the door then waited another moment before knocking twice more. There was a period of silence before the door unlocked and opened.

Which left Gabe face to face with another cyborg. 

This one wasn’t quite like Genji, the top half of his face was exposed and the face mask looked like it was made of breathable material. Likewise, the man’s right arm was exposed.  The dark hair was pulled atop his head in a topknot and his bangs covered the remaining part of his face. 

Gabe could still see the questioning look in the man’s eyes as he turned his gaze imperceptibly towards Jesse. 

“Sweetheart, this is Gabriel Reyes. I talked about him before. He was my boss before I left Overwatch.” Leave it to McCree to fully trust Gabe enough to let him know his entire relationship with this stranger with just one simple introduction.

The stranger, this sweetheart of Jesse’s, scoffed lightly and rolled his eyes, but stepped aside to allow the two into the room, before closing the door softly with a click.

Leaned up against the wall next to the door was a compound bow and Gabe could spy the quiver near the balcony. “I assume you were the one helping Jesse out of trouble.” 

“Huckleberry, ya gotta let me fight my own fights sometimes. I’m gonna get rusty if you keep interferin’.” Jesse pouted, Gabe shared a commiserating look with this… cyborg… ninja? 

“Gabriel Reyes.” Gabe offered his hand. 

The man’s eyes glanced between the two former Blackwatch operatives before grabbing Gabe’s hand and gave a, “Hanzo Shimada.” 

It was that and the exposed brand on the man’s right shoulder, twin dragons eating each other’s tails that had Gabe dropping the hand like it was made of hot metal and reaching for his shotguns. 

Immediately the man, the brother killer, shifted, his entire body going even tenser, before he sprung for his bow. Gabe would have shot the man then and there if McCree didn’t physically intervene. 

The brim of his hat cast a dark shadow over his eyes as he snarled a warning, “You want my help,  _ jefe _ , you’re going treat Hanzo with respect, and don’t go attacking him.” 

Hanzo, Gabe realised, had never even drawn his bow, he just had it resting easily in his loose grip, as if the man would rather die with his bow in his hands than defending himself. 

Gabe took a deep breath, and put the shotguns away. “I thought all the Shimada’s were dead.” He leaned up against the wall and McCree stepped back to stand only slightly between the two. “Last I heard, some assassin had killed them all a couple years after the youngest was killed.” 

Before Hanzo had a chance to respond, McCree answered for him, “That was Hanzo.” 

“Huh.” Gabe eloquently replied. 

The three men stood in the room awkwardly before the cyborg coughed quietly. “Would you like something to drink, Commander Reyes?” So the man had information too.

“Coffee. Black like his soul.” Jesse answered first. And the last remaining tension eased out of the room. 

As Hanzo turned to put the kettle on, leaving his bow resting against the bed (a queen the only in the room, as if Gabe had any lingering doubts as to what these two men were to each other). “So, you said something about a job?” McCree asked, motioning for Gabe to take a seat. 

Pitching his voice lowly Gabe asked, “He know his brother isn’t dead?” McCree nodded.

Letting out a sigh Gabe sunk into the armchair and gave his pitch. Telling Jesse about the group of terrorists upsetting a way of life, about how him and Genji had gone off to recruit old friends to help. During the story the communicator that Efi had given him chimed, with a message from Genji informing him they had Reinhardt on board.

“What do you think, Sweetpea?” McCree asked. Gabe could see in the cowboy’s posture that he wanted to go, but given who was involved he obviously wanted the cyborg’s agreement as well.

Hanzo paused, he had pulled his face mask down so he could drink his tea while he listened, and it allowed Gabe to watch his jaw clench and unclench before the man replied, looking directly at Gabe, “Genji cannot know. I am sure he has heard about the clan, and must continue to believe that I died when the assassin attacked.” Hanzo said this so surely, that Gabe truly believed the man thought his former self to be dead. 

“Babe-” 

Hanzo cut off his partner before he had a chance to talk about reconciliation, “No. Either Genji does not know or I will not do the job.” He turned to Gabe, sensing the man was of a more tactical mind, and knowing he wasn’t emotionally involved. “You need a sharpshooter, this Amari may be good but I assume you want her there for support instead. If you want me, you must follow my terms.”

Gabe considered this for a few moments, as he drained the last dregs of his coffee. He thought it over, Amari could be sharpshooter and medic, she had done it plenty in the beginnings of Overwatch. But Gabe knew if he lost the older Shimada he would lose McCree as well. 

“You gonna cover that?” Gabe jerked his head at the large scar that covered Hanzo’s entire right shoulder.

“He will just assume that I crossed The Clan at some point, he has no reason to suspect that I am a Shimada.” The archer replied firmly.

Gabe took off his beanie and ran his hands through his thick curls, “if that’s what it takes to get McCree on board, then sure, I don’t give a damn.” 

McCree scoffed at the tough exterior his former commander tried to put on. And Gabe cracked a smile at the gunslinger. “Glad to have you.” The beanie went back on his head and he shook both men’s hands. 

“We’re about a day from the rendezvous, from what you said. I will go gather supplies in town.” Hanzo said as he pulled his face mask back up. 

“Stay safe darlin’.” McCree warned gently, bringing the archer’s right hand to his lips and giving it a gentle kiss. Gabe felt himself turning away from the gently intimate action.

Hanzo gave a small huff, but still allowed it to happen. 

But, as he crossed behind the cowboy he knocked the hat off his head and huffed out a, “I am more worried about you.” Before leaving the room. 

McCree had a soft look on his face that made something in Gabe’s gut clench, in jealousy or remembrance of a time long gone, he couldn’t tell.

“So, you mentioned Ana and Reinhardt, yout gonna-”

“I swear to Christ, McCree, if you say that man’s name I’m going to-”

“Can’t make me run laps any more,  _ jefe _ , I’m my own man.” At one time, maybe there would have been some bitterness in McCree’s tone, but now there was nothing but amusement.

“Don’t need more than five men.” Gabe said stubbornly avoiding McCree’s gaze.

“From what you say we need five hundred, but six would do. Especially if two of them were super soldiers on  _ our  _ side.” McCree added, as he stood up to turn the kettle on to make another two mugs of instant dirt.

The cowboy started whistling to himself, some old Wild West country song and Gabe groaned at the tactic for what it was. “Ana has some inkling of where he might be, but I can’t guarantee that he’ll be there or that he would even want to help.” Not to mention he had a vague awareness of where the former Strike Commander might be holed up, not that he would ever say so.

“Once a hero, always a hero.” Jesse said sagely, in a manner that truly showed Gabe how much the man had grown up in the last six years.

“You got any whiskey hiding around here?” Gabe asked, and he watched Jesse crack a grin.

“Was waitin’ on you to ask,  _ jefe. _ ” 

When they set off a day later, the two would know better to complain about their hangovers. 


	5. The Big Guy and (unfortunately) The Old Guy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Quite a batch of Strays"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If he didn't need Ana, Gabe seriously considers kicking her out...

When Gabe and his protegee and protegee’s lover met back up with the rest of the group, he really should have been more prepared for an ambush. 

“Ah, my old friend!” Reinhardt cheered, as the mountain of a man, luckily not in his Crusader armour, pulled Gabe into a tight hug, that nearly cracked a rib or two.

“Been, a while, Rein.” Gabe wheezed, as he gave a pat, that was more friendly than he would ever admit.

“I see you brought the cowboy.”  Ana observed, putting a hand on Reinhardt’s shoulder and smiling softly as she watched her two oldest friends seperate. 

“He couldn’t do a mission without me if he tried.” McCree drawled as he hopped off his motorcycle, ambling over to the old guard as if he had all the time in the world. “Where’s the cyborg ninja?” He asked, casting his gaze around the clearing they were in.

“We sent him scouting ahead.” Ana supplied, giving a sharp glance at Gabe.

“No.”

“What’dya mean ‘no’?” McCree asked as he slipped an arm around the archer’s waist, dragging him into the circle.  

“Reyes’ just being a chicken!” Reinhardt said in the merry way of his.

“I just don’t see how this is any of-”

Gabriel was interrupted when he saw the shadow of a figure through the trees immediately spring at Jesse and brought him tumbling to the ground.

The two immediately began catching up in rapid fire Japanese and Spanish. Reinhardt laughed good-naturedly at the two younger men, while Gabe and Ana simply let out long suffering sighs. And while Gabe couldn’t see under the mask that Hanzo had refused to undo since they set out that morning, Gabe could see the conflicting emotions in the man’s eyes.

Finally, Gabe managed to catch a  _ koibito  _ and  _ amor  _ in the younger black-ops conversation and turned back to watch the two as Jesse helped Genji to his feet and made a motion for Hanzo to come over.

“Genji, this is,” Jesse locked eyes with Hanzo, “Yamada Takeshi.” 

Hanzo bowed low, at the same time as Ana caught Gabriel’s eye and quirked an eyebrow at him. 

When Gabe refused to answer, or acknowledge the bounty hunter, she made a motion towards Hanzo’s right shoulder. Deciding he could be stubborn too, Gabe just sent her a blank stare back. He didn’t know when he became protective of Hanzo Shimada, but it stood to reason he was better off keeping the man’s secrets.

Gabe tuned into the conversation as Genji introduced himself, unknowingly to his own brother, then in Japanese said: “ _ I am sorry to see the brand. I apologise for the pain The Clan caused you _ .”

Jesse’s hand immediately wrapped around Hanzo’s free hand and gave it a squeeze, as Hanzo clenched his jaw and gave a quick nod.

“Now, shall we go get our other fearless leader?” Reinhardt boomed. The man wasn’t oblivious, instead he simply decided to make Gabe uncomfortable and absolve the tension between the two brothers. Rein might have been big in both heart and height, but that didn’t make him clueless.

“No. We shall not.” Gabe ground out, before he turned around and began to head back towards his truck.

“Yes. We shall.” Ana huffed, and Genji quickly excused himself to stand between Gabe and his getaway.

“We don’t even know where he is.” Gabe lied. He had been keeping track of everyone, it would be stupid and dangerous not to keep track of… Of  _ him  _ as well.

“Just up the road.” Genji supplied, quickly stepping out of Gabe’s reach when the old commander turned his glare at the cyborg.

Finally he gave up on intimidating a masked ninja, Gabe turned his murderous gaze on Ana. “What the hell, Amari?”

“You weren’t going to ask him, so when we parted ways I let Jack-” She rolled her eyes as Gabe protested the name, “I let  _ Jack  _ know that we had a job and needed as many people as we could get.”

“Did you let him know I was in charge?” And Gabe let his mouth curl into a wicked grin when Ana decided she wouldn’t meet his gaze anymore. “Thought so.”

“It has been a long time, Gabriel, I assure you Jack is over it by now.” Reinhardt cut in, always the one to try and defuse tension amongst the old guard. 

“I assure you he isn’t” A new voice called. Immediately everyone had drawn their weapons and aimed them all directly at the newcomer’s person. Except for Ana, who just slowly turned to face the man.

And while Gabe knew that voice, would never forget that voice. Could never forget that voice and all the ways it made his stomach twist and curl, in pleasure and pain, he wouldn’t let up a chance to play a game with the man. 

“Who’re you?” McCree asked. And Gabe nearly blew his cover. McCree was a smart man, but damn if there wasn’t a reason no one suspected him as former black-ops.

“The Shrike sent for me.” 

This time Gabe couldn’t help but roll his eyes.

He could understand, however, why McCree hadn’t recognised the former Strike Commander. With a visor over his eyes, and mask over the lower part of his face, and his hair no longer the famed sunny blonde, it was easy to think this was a stranger. 

But even with those differences, Gabe could still make out the young man he had fallen in love with underneath it all.

Finally conceding defeat, Gabe holstered his shotguns and stepped forward. 

“You gonna to show your face, Morrison?” Gabe asked, as he crossed his arms across his chest.

“You ever going to show  _ your  _ hand?” Jack asked, his eyebrow raising up, a scar tha cut across his forehead moving along with it.

“Nah, I got a good feeling about it.” Gabe said smugly, and he tilted his head, in an attempt to call Morrison’s bluff.

Jack sighed and took off his visor, pulling his mask down as he did so. 

“As I live and breathe.” McCree muttered from behind Gabe, and he lowered Peacekeeper before spinning her flashily and holstering her. 

So he was still on his commander’s side, that was more of a comfort than Gabe would ever admit.

“Jack, my old friend! It has been too long!” Like he had greeted Gabe, Reinhardt moved to give Jack a crushing hug. But unlike Gabe, Jack easily sidestepped the giant man in a blatant refusal.

Immediately Ana was by his side pulling on the man’s ear like she had done to Gabe three days earlier. “Manners, Morrison.” She chided in a voice she usually only reserved for Fareeha.

Gabe ducked his head. As much as he wanted to hate the man, the fall back into his friend’s old ways made his eyes prick. 

Letting out a deep breath and shaking his head, Gabe stepped forward and clapped his hands together. “Is there anyone else coming that I wasn’t told about.” He asked sharing an amused grin with Ana, he never could stay mad at her for long. 

And not just because she was a scary motherfucker when she wanted to be.

When no one said anything, Gabe nodded shortly and began filling everyone in, letting them ask questions when they needed to, but most had already been filled in on the relevant details.

At the end of the story, with Genji filling a bit more of the timeline, Gabe glanced around the circle of their impromptu meeting.

“Any questions?” Gabe asked, glancing at everyone, and his eyes finally landing on their latest recruit before hurriedly moving off him. 

“Since when do  _ you  _ take suicide missions?” Everyone turned looked at Jack. McCree’s hand dropped to hover above Peacekeeper, and Genji tensed despite all his talk of found tranquility. Still, it felt really good to have his sons, subordinates he corrected himself, still on his side even if they left just as the shit show began six years ago. 

Ana made no outward sign of disappointment in her old friend, but Gabe caught a glimpse of her good eye that had turned stony. 

Even Reinhardt turned the edges of his lips down, the furthest he would go to a frown.

Let it be known that Gabe had wanted to try to give Morrison a chance. Let it be known that he had wanted to make an attempt at at least becoming friends again. But Morrison, like always, could never leave something be. “I’ve taken suicide missions since the start of my career,  _ gringo. _ ” 

The unspoken, unlike you, didn’t go past Jack if the way his expression turned thunderous as any indication.

“Let it go, boys.” Ana said, stepping in between the two of them, easily stepping back into her role as moderator. 

“And besides, this won’t be a suicide mission.” Hanzo called from next to McCree.

“Sugar, I respect your faith in us, but this is gearing up to be a suicide mission.” McCree said calmly.

Hanzo rolled his eyes, and made a grumbled response about… storming a castle yearly? 

“It doesn’t have to be though.” Gabe said clearly, bringing everyone’s attention back to the former black ops commander. “We’ve all done crazier missions, with less trustworthy people at our backs.” He ignored Jack and instead focused on McCree and Genji who nodded their heads in understanding agreement. “But, this isn’t a mission. I’m doing this cause I want to do what’s right, but I won’t hold it against anyone who decides this isn’t where they want to die.” 

At that the tone became somber. 

“I never said I wouldn't do it.” Jack said, his gaze focused on something over Gabe’s shoulder. 

“Next time, be a bit more courteous about it.” Ana said, pinching Jack in the side.

Eventually Jack sighed and nodded, though Ana didn’t seem happy about the amount of time it took. 

They were just about to decide who would head off in whose vehicle when a purple pixelated cloud formed and disappeared suddenly. In its place stood a young woman with more purple on her than Gabe thought necessary. And if the cybernetics in her head were anything to go by, she was more than a little bit dangerous.

Instantly, everyone’s weapons were trained on the woman, who grinned, like there was nowhere else she wanted to be.

“ _ Hola _ , looking for me?” 


	6. The Young One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "My path is different."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gabe's team gets an unexpected addition, bringing the total to Seven.

Ana shot a sleep dart at the sudden appearance of the figure but the woman, girl really compared to everyone else there, disappeared then reappeared atop Gabe’s truck, unharmed and sitting on the roof like it’s a thrown. She lazily spun her pistol before she holsered it.

“And here I thought that the friends of  _ Rey en Negro  _ were more skilled than that.”  She sighed, crossing one leg over the other and placing her chin in her hand.

Beside him Jesse flinched and distantly he could hear Genji threaten the Mexican girl in Japanese.

He waved them off, and they stood down, but all the weapons were still trained on the mysterious girl.

She seemed to type on air, but the sounds of manicured nails on a keyboard sounded throughout the otherwise silent clearing. A small screen appeared where her fingertips were, and she pinched the air to make it larger, floating above the gathered team’s heads.

On the screen showed various shots from News Drones during the crisis. Jack and Gabriel fighting back to back, surrounded by a large number of omnics. Ana and Gabe bent over a table, no doubt talking through some sort of plan.

Jack and Gabe fighting back to back again.

Ana tending to a wound on Reinhardt’s shoulder.

The picture that got used as propaganda that Jack hated.

Jack and Gabe-

“Enough.” The former strike commander demanded, his voice rough, and Gabe chose to ignore any implications that might bring.

But the girl simply rolled her eyes and with a flick of her fingers the images disappeared.

“What do you want?” Gabe asked as he crossed his arms over his chest. He had already holstered his shotguns, there was no need for them when he had seven skilled fighters at his back.

“Oh, Gabe-- do you mind if I call you Gabe?” She continued on when Gabriel didn’t answer, “What don’t I want from you?” Her smile turned sharp and curiosity gleamed in her… purple eyes.

That was just ridiculous. “You better start somewhere, or I won’t be accountable for what my associates do.” He shrugged.

She hopped off the roof of his truck and sauntered over to him, still above him, walking along the bed of the truck. As she walked her finger tips trailed along side her and various screens appeared. 

On those screens were various surveillance videos, starting from when Gabriel and Genji had first left Numbani to find Ana.

“At first,” she sighed, not caring that if anything the weapons behind Gabriel that had started to dip perked back up, “I was hired by my employer, you might know him,” A picture of Ogundimu appeared on a screen. “To track you down and surveil you.” She shrugged and scrolled through some photos half heartedly.

“And I did, but when your friend,” She nodded in Ana’s direction, but her intense gaze was on Gabe and Gabe alone, “Dispatched your tail, I decided it was best for me to get out in the field myself.”

Gabriel felt his jaw clench at the fact that he had been trailed by this strange stalker, hacker (?) without even realising it.

She noticed and reassured: “Don’t worry, I’ve spent my entire life trailing people who are paranoid, you not noticing is part of my job.” She hopped off the bed of the truck and landed with a flourished bow and a wave.

“But then, I got to thinking. Wouldn’t it be more fun to join you and your,” She moved her stare off Gabriel and glanced meaningfully at Morrison, “How’d you put it?” 

Morrison doesn’t answer her, and he grips his rifle harder.

“ _ Misión suicida.”  _ She pretended to search for the words in English as she tapped pink manicured nails on her temple. Gabe had to give her credit, he was a fan of theatrics himself.

“Suicide Mission!” She exclaimed, hitting her head in a  _ duh  _ manner. 

“Get to the point lil’ lady.” McCree grumbled.

The woman leaned around Gabriel’s sturdy figure and shushed the cowboy, “shhh,  _ vaquero _ , I’m telling a story.”

Gabe could feel Jesse’s anger and frustration levels rising, something he’d been acutely aware of since he met the kid, and made a slicing motion with his hand at his side. 

Immediately Jesse and Genji holstered their weapons, but continued to stand in a fighting stance, and Gabe assumed  that Hanzo does so as well, albeit reluctantly.

The spanish speaking hacker returns her gaze to Gabriel, “Neat party trick.” 

Gabe just shrugged and motioned for her to continue. “And me and Akande don’t really see eye-to-eye, so I thought to myself  _ Olivia, you better get in on that while you can _ .” 

At the end of her little monologue the woman, Olivia, bowed, and Gabe gave a few half hearted claps in her direction. 

“Alright  _ Sombrita _ ,” He raises his eyebrows and she doesn’t protest the nickname, if anything she smiles, “Why should we trust you?”

“First of all, I’m not a little girl, at least show me some respect. Second, you outnumber me eight to one, I already proved I can track you without your knowledge, if I was really still on Talon’s side why would I show myself and risk getting shot.” She waved a hand precisely in Ana’s direction.

“It wouldn’t kill you.” Ana chided, before she lowered her sleep dart gun. Beside her Reinhardt also lowered his hammer, but Morrison, stubborn jackass that he was, kept his rifle levelled at their  _ sombra _ .

Gabe considered her for a moment then let out a heavy sigh. He thought he was done with annoying charges once Jesse and Genji got old and left, but it appeared that he was just cursed. “Fair point.”

“ _ Gracias,  _ Reaper” She said lowly, so only Gabe could hear, and his spine stiffened the slightest bit at that, but refused to let it show to anyone else but the perceptive hacker.

“ _ De nada, Sombra _ .” He said before turning back to the group, better to not piss the woman off completely.

“Is that her thing, can we call her Sombra?” McCree asked, and in one continuous motion he tipped his hat back with one finger and reached into his pocket and brought out a cigarillo. 

Honestly Gabe was surprised he hadn’t started before then, but a glance at the disdain in Hanzo’s eyes gave him the explanation to his question.

“If I can call you Joel.” Sombra bit back.

McCree’s eyes darkened under the brim of his hat, “Name’s not Joel.” He grit out, and relaxed when Hanzo curls a pinky around his.

When Hanzo’s own death glare is directed at her, Sombra backs off, her hands in a gesture of surrender, “Alright, so that’s a no on that front.” She shrugs when she replied, “Don’t mind Sombra, though. Nicknames are your thing aren’t they,  _ jefe _ ?”

That encouraged Jesse to relax and he let out a bark of laughter. Gabe raised his eyes heavenward and wondered at what he did to possibly land himself in this situation.

Then with a glance over towards the old guard he heaved a sigh, “Put the gun away Morrison, she’s not a threat.” 

Morrison glared at him for a few more moments, before dropping back into parade rest.

_ Fucking  _ gringo _ , still a soldier at heart.  _

“Well, let’s figure out the riding arrangements.” Gabe sighed. Ana had her Jeep and Gabe had his truck, and luckily, Reinhardt had his own mode of transportation, thank God.

But they still had to find a space for Genji and their newest additions.

A glare at Ana and she nodded her assent before he could give the order. “Jack can ride with me.”

Genji and Olivia glanced between each other, but before either could say anything, Genji raced towards the truck and dived into the passenger seat, the window still down from the earlier drive.

“Shotgun.” Genji said smugly.

Hanzo, in Gabe’s periphery, has a mixture of pain and fondness warring in his eyes.

“Fine by me.” Olivia conceded, and Gabriel wonders if he should have taken Morrison after all, awkward silence be damned.

It would probably be better than the typical road trip shenanigans that would happen in his truck.

“Genji, get out the car, we’re not leaving yet.” Gabe sighed, rubbing his temples in a vain attempt to try and prevent the oncoming migraine.

Jesse and Genji started bickering, and Sombra threw in little jabs here and there. Hanzo stood slightly off to the side, unsure of his place as a stranger to his younger brother.

Ana and Rein were talking about what to have for food before they hit the road.

And Jack Morrison, stood in the middle of it all like he had no clue what was happening. As if he hadn’t been around this many people in five years.

Gabe shrugged, not his problem at the moment.

“ _ What the hell are you three doing? _ ” He instead asked in incredulous Spanish at how quickly Jesse, Genji, and Olivia managed to get into a situation.

The three glanced between each other, and as one said, “Nothing.” It was the same fake saccharine whine that Jesse and Genji used to use back in Blackwatch. 

Rein began laughing his deep belly laugh, and Ana smiled, a sad tinge to the corner of her lips. 

Gabe just sighed and went to help Ana and Rein with the food. “I’ve decided don’t want to know.” 


	7. The First Firefight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Seven Days that's all you got."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The first firefight is a success but The Seven still have a long way to go.

Before they head off the next morning Hanzo pulls Sombra aside and gave her several lowly voiced threats.

Gabe figured it’s the safe choice, but he won’t break his vow to Jesse, seeing as how he needed all the help he can get.

But, Sombra doesn’t tell Genji anything during the car ride. Although she does make some pointed barbs about The Clan.

Otherwise it was mostly a calm ride, if he could get over the two fighting over what station to try to tune in on the old radio. Even though Genji didn’t really have a chance, not when his opponent could change the station from the back seat without touching the dial.

The beat up truck led the charge southeast followed by Jesse and Hanzo on Jesse’s bike, followed up in the sedan that Rein’s managed to make look like a clown car, and finally as far away as possible, Ana’s Jeep brought up the rear.

It’s not just because Morrison was in the car that she’s back there, realistically she has the best eye to keep out for tails and anyone that could come up behind them in an attempted ambush.

That’s what Gabe kept telling himself anyway.

They’d been driving for a while when his quiet musings are broken by the comm Efi gave him as it started to beep urgently.

Genji tapped on it to accept the call, and he can tell, though he’s not really sure how, that Sombra does something to put the call through to all other transports.

“What is it Efi?” Genji asked, his entire demeanor changed from the previous rowdy argument he’d been in.

“They sent some bodyguards in! They call themselves Junkrat and Roadhog, Master Zenyatta’s made everyone get into the temple but… but it’s not looking so good.” The young girl reported, and while she’s tried to be strong, Gabe could hear it in her voice, she sounded nervous and Gabe tightened his grip on the steering wheel so hard that his knuckles go pale.

“We’ll be there tonight, Fi, just make sure no one leaves the temple.” Genji soothed, before hanging up the comm.

“What’s the plan  _ jefe _ ?” Sombra asked, as she leaned forward to rest on the middle console.

“Can you make whatever you did a two way call?” He asked, as he shifted into a higher gear, his truck rattling slightly in protest.

“What’s the plan  _ jefe _ ?” Jesse asked and Gabe let out a laugh at how similar his  _ vaquero  _ and  _ sombra  _ are.

“I’m thinking we give them a show.” Gabe replied back, to the excited whoops of Genji and Jesse.

The rest of the drive passed with Ana and Gabe bickering back and forth about Gabe’s plan, but when Genji’s home comes into view over the horizon she finally conceded to the plan.

Gabe drove back into town by himself, an old western tune playing over the radio thanks to Sombra. He always appreciated someone who could match his love of theatrics. Sombra, speaking of which, stood in the bed of the truck, and used her cloaking device to avoid detection. 

The others were getting into their agreed upon positions, but Gabe drew the attention of the Junkers, a nasty gang that had moved over from Australia, with his nonchalant entrance.

Gabe drove through the centre street of Numbani and parked his truck about twenty feet back from where two figures stood, trying and failing to appear menacing, as they blocked the path to the temple. 

“Oi, who’re you?” The lanky one called out, bits of hair on fire, and he’s slouched something awful so Gabe figures he’s almost as tall as the masked one standing slightly behind him.

“Gabriel Reyes.” Gabe called out, his hands in the air as he elbows the door shut, his steps measured and unhurried, his shot guns a comforting presence at his hips even if he wasn’t much too worried. 

The skinny one looked up at the other who supplied, “Hero of the omnic crisis.”

“Ohhhhh!” He looks back at Gabe, “So what are you doing in a town full of tin cans?”

Gabe shrugged, “Some business I need to take care of.” His eyes caught the movement as one of Sombra’s translocators landed in an alley, but he still could feel her presence behind him.

“Gonna need your guns.” The big one said.

“Why’s that?” Gabe watched as a few other warn and heavily armed gang members step out of the shadows, no doubt drawn by the strange figure.

“Boss Lady’s rules, she don’t want the tin cans armed.” The other one cackled.

“Fair’s fair.” Gabe acquiesced pulling his shotguns out of their holsters and offered them out butt first. “But in the interest of fair, how is it that you fellas get along so well?”

The one with the mask rearranged his grip on his weapons and widened his stance a bit. At least one of the pair has some brains, otherwise it would have been truly be unfair. “Somebody’s got keep law and order.”

The tall one laughed again, more maniachally than the first time, “Aw shucks Roadhog, you know we don’t know nothing about the law.”

“Shut it Junkrat!” A different gang member called from the perimeter that’s formed around Gabe and Sombra, and that’s when he noticed a shimmer of purple appear and disappear as quickly as it came behind the enclosed circle.

That’s Gabe’s cue. “Now, I have no problem giving up my guns,” Gabe stepped forward, the surrounding thirty or so gang members train their weapons on him, but he’s stepped into the shadows one moment and the next he’s looming one step away from the head junkers. “But my  _ compadres _ behind you won’t be so generous.” Gabe let his eyes blink red and his smile turn something feral.

Out of her own shadow Sombra appeared, and the two gang members closest to her take a step back and look between Gabe and her like they aren’t sure who they should be more weary of. 

Gabe can hear the ridiculous sound of McCree’s spurs as the man steps out from where he’d been hidden. He has a cigarillo in his mouth that he slowly puffs on, his hat pulled low over his head, his fingers occasionally twitched slightly above Peacekeeper.

Behind the two that Gabe’d been talking to, Reinhardt and Ana appeared, and Gabe still doesn’t understand how Reinhardt can be anywhere close to stealthy.

Behind Gabe, Jack steps out onto a balcony of the hotel, and Gabe could feel himself relax a bit. 

Even after all that time it was still a comfort to have Jack at his back.

“You sure you don’t want my guns?” Gabe made another motion with his guns but Junkrat just eyed them wearily.

Finally, he pulled out a detonator with an  _ aha _ motion and pressed the bright red button down.

But nothing happened, and Gabe’s smile turns sharp and in his excitement his nanites buzz and rolled off of him in wisps of smoke.

“ _ Hanate ( _ 放て)!” Gabe ordered in Japanese and an arrow flies over his shoulder and knocked the detonator out of Junkrat’s hand.

With a furious outcry from Junkrat, a battle exploded in the street.

Roadhog, sent a massive metal hook towards Gabe but he disappeared in a cloud of nanites and the hook passed harmlessly through him.

Jesse threw a Flashbang in front of the two junkers, leaving time for Gabe to make an escape.

But the damn  _ vaquero _ wasn’t watching his own back so Gabe had to shoot the gang member sneaking up behind him. When the body falls to the floor McCree gives a nod of appreciation before he turned to join the fight again.

Further along Rein swung his hammer and called out his kills as he made them. 

Ana was further back behind him picking off impossible shots, and taking out some gang members who’d tried to run.

From his perch on a roof Hanzo shot one of his trick arrows that allows the rest of the team to see inside various buildings, and how many more enemies are hidden where they think they’re safe.

Sombra’s dispatched the gang members that were surrounding her, and she vanished in more purple pixels and before she entered a building that had quite a few gang members to deal with.

Gabriel himself took his time to step into a group and started to fire without prejudice, he spun around himself and fired more shots than were held in his Hellfire shotguns. There’s a cloud of nanites at his feet, which meant he didn’t have corporeal feet at the moment.

Some bastard managed to get a lucky shot in, but there’s another two shots quickly following it. The gang member dropped down from a sleep dart and Ana threw, with surprising power, a biotic grenade that fixed Gabe up well enough to not be out of the fight, and allowed him to finish off the poor sucker who’s still unconscious on the ground.

Junkrat and Roadhog are nowhere to be seen, most of the gang members are dispensed with which Hanzo and Jesse finish off with a scatter arrow and Jesse’s Deadeye.

The town became eerily peaceful after the cacophony of the gun fight died down.

But it’s just as quickly broken when a motorcycle with a sidecar squealed out of town, Junkrat’s high pitched maniacal giggles cut the tension in the air.

Jack began to take aim.

“Let them go.” Gabe barked.

And Morrison, the stubborn ass, still fired a helix rocket that by all accounts should have taken out the barely held together bike. But Roadhog swerved out of the way and continued off into the sunset.

“What the hell!” Jack grumbled, as he jumped off the roof, his super soldier joints took the impact easily despite his age. “‘Let them go’ is that what you said?”

“They’re mercenaries, Jackass, they won’t come back once they see how much of a fight we can give.” Gabe snarled, as he walked up into Jack’s personal space, their breath heavy between them, and the nanites rolling off of Gabe in angry clouds

“Easy there,  _ jefe, _ no harm no foul.” McCree drawled as he spun Peacekeeper and holstered her, giving the ridiculous spur accessory a spin as well. 

Gabe listened to him and backs off, but he’s still pissed. “How’d we do?”

Hanzo dropped down from his perch as well while Rein called, “I think we killed them all!”

“Not quite.” Sombra said walking out of the hotel, an omnic, Maximilien, Gabe recalled Zenyatta saying, held at gunpoint in front of her.

“Olivia,” His voice a low threat, “I told Akande you would betray us.”

“And he should have listened to you  _ amigo _ .” Sombra sighed dramatically.

“What’d’you wanna do with him, Gabe?” McCree asked.

Ana gave an exasperated sigh. “You can’t torture an omnic, Gabriel.” 

Maximilien took a step back, but this left him with the barrel of Sombra gun against his head which he also tried to shy away from.

Jack grunted in agreement and looked as if he’s daring Gabe to go back into Blackwatch mode.

“Wasn’t going to, nah he’s gonna deliver a message, aren’t you Max?” Gabe asked while he menacingly approached the hotel owner whose only response was to nod curtly. “Tell Akande, The Reaper comes for his soul.” 

Jesse and Sombra let out a bark of laughter each at how ridiculous he sounds, but then they’re the only two that had a real understanding of what he meant.

“Now get out of town.” Maximilien looked uncertain until he glanced around before he raced off with as much dignity as the omnic could afford to spare.

When the sound of his vehicle can no longer be heard Gabe turned back to the group.

Genji appeared as well, returning from keep the temple safe during the shootout, and has a herd of townspeople behind him. Efi’s rode in on Orisa’s shoulders, and even Lynx was out to greet the seven of them.

“Thank you for coming to our aid.” Zenyatta greeted peacefully, Lynx let out a scoff, but Gabe ignored them.

“Shoot, any friend of Genji is a friend of ours, right, sugar?” Jesse asked Hanzo, who gave a slow nod in affirmation.

“Come, I will show you your space in the temple, and then you may discuss your plans.” Zenyatta offered, before turning around before anyone could have the chance to protest.

Jack looked mistrustful, but Ana and Rein follow the small group of omnics that are following the town’s leader, while other townspeople headed back to whatever homes they had in the surrounding area.

Genji excitedly introduced his best friend, and unknowingly his brother, to his Master. Rein asked Efi questions faster than she could answer, amazed at the young engineer.

Sombra stood slightly behind his shoulder. “You know what you’re doing, right Gabe?”

Gabe watched Jack reluctantly follow the others, though his grasp on his pulse rifle is still tight. “I’ve got a plan.”

“Whatever you say  _ Dios de la muerte. _ ” Sombra replied, as she walked ahead to catch up with the others.

Gabriel glanced at his hands and watched the nanites that are still rolling off in more wisps. He waited until they settle down before he joined the others. 


	8. So Far So Good

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "What we've lost in the fire we will find in the ashes."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The first battle was fought and won, but now they need to turn a bunch of farmers into soldiers.   
> Along the way things may just be fixed.

That night they all meet the townspeople who include many more than Gabe had originally met. After discussing some plans for town defenses and giving anyone an option to leave who wanted to, the seven of them were led to the dormitories by Genji.

The pairs separated easily and as expected. Ana and Reinhardt into a room, obviously still together despite the years apart.

Jesse and Hanzo split off into another room without saying so much as a goodnight to the others, and Gabe couldn’t fault them, though he made a note not to take the room next to them.

Sombra entered the room next to Ana and Rein’s, and before anyone else could join her, she shuts the door behind her. “Sorry,  _ amigos _ , I don’t share.” 

From behind the door she didn’t sound sorry at all.

Gabe scratched the back of his head and sighed at the realisation that he’d have to bunk with Morrison. 

“You still snore?” Jack asked after Genji had left leaving them alone in the room.

“I barely sleep.” Gabe replied, shocked at his own honesty.

Then Jack offered him a compromise that he hadn’t been expecting, “Me either.”

The room fell silent again, but this time it was less hostile and Gabe privately relished at the familiarity of the two of them putting their packs away and getting ready for the night.

They turned out the lights about an hour later despite their both admitted insomnia. 

As he lay on his back, staring up at the ceiling, Gabe was interrupted from his own private musings by the sound of Jack turning over on his own bed. “You’ve got a plan on how we’re going to get out of this?’

Gabe can’t tell if Jack is asking him to soothe his own unspoken fears or because he knows Gabe needs to talk about his plans out loud with someone who’ll question him and needle the finer details out of him. “Akande is going to bring an entire army with him, no doubt about that.” Gabe heaved himself onto his side and isn’t as surprised as he should be that Jack was facing him from a similar position on his own bed.

“Yup, we all figured that.” It’s nice to listen to Jack’s voice when they aren’t arguing, even if its gruffer than the last time they were in a situation like this… Gabe quickly cut himself off from that train of thought before it has a chance to fully form.

“But the question is if they’re just going to be more mercenaries like The Junkers, or if they’ll be trained Talon soldiers.” Gabe heaved a sigh, and he can feel some nanites come off in a wave of anxiety. 

“Which do you think it is?” Jack’s voice was getting thick with the fog of sleep.

“Go to sleep  _ gringo _ .”

“Not a chance, c’mon we need to start doing work tomorrow.” Gabe could barely make out the flinty determination in Jack’s blue eyes.

He sighed again, ‘It’s gonna be Talon, no doubt about that. For whatever reason Akande wants to hold onto this town.” Gabe smashed his face into his pillow and let out a frustrated groan, “We’ve only got a week, there’s no way we can turn a bunch of farmers and monks into fighting fit competent soldiers in only seven days.”

Jack didn’t say anything, and Gabe hoped that he fell asleep.

“Genji’s here. You’ve got seven other people and three of them are Blackwatch, two are the sons of the Shimada-gumi,” Gabe really shouldn’t have been surprised that Jack’s managed to figure that one out. “Ana and Rein both fought with us during The Crisis, neither of them are anything to sneeze at. Olivia, she’s strange, but her inside knowledge could be what we need to push are odds over the edge.”

“You sure have changed your tune.” Gabe huffed as a retort, angry that Jack still knew him so well even after five years without each other.

“A car ride with Ana will do that for you.” They both chuckled softly at that. “And, I know it didn’t seem like it at the end,” he didn’t say at the end of what, and for that Gabe was grateful, “but I trust you more than anyone else. If we do die here, then I’ll die knowing that you did everything you could do to prevent it.”

To cover up the way his eyes were itching he scoffed, “Getting sentimental in your old age?”

“You’re a year older than me.” Jack huffed back, and Gabe was so glad that they still have their old jokes between them, that things weren’t as far gone as he thought they were.

“Exactly, I’ve had a year to get over my existential angst.”

Jack snorted at that and threw one of the spare pillows at him. Gabe deflected it back, if only because he knew Jack needed the pillow more than he does. “Go to sleep, Gabe.”

Gabe doesn’t say anything but hummed in agreement as he turned onto his back, and Jack settled down again.

The next morning over breakfast Gabe dealt out the tasks for the day.

He sent Ana and Hanzo out together to prepare various sniper nests and find the best vantage points in the town.

Rein he sent out to help dig traps for the incoming soldiers. 

He sent Jack and Jesse off to teach the more willing townsfolk how to shoot a gun, and he’s honestly glad that he wasn’t the one having to do it.

Sombra offered  to dig up as much on Akande as possible so Gabe waved the hacker off to go do whatever it is she does best.

He himself went between spot to spot and kept an eye on everything. And occasionally talked to Zenyatta. 

Everyday was more of the same and even with the impending battle looming over their heads, the townsfolk weren’t as sombre as anyone was expecting them to be.

Zenyatta and Gabe were watching Reinhardt take a break from his trap laying to play with the children of the town. He seemed to have taken a particular shine to Efi, and Orisa obviously looks up to the retired crusader.

“You want to know how any of us can be laughing.” Zenyatta broke the silence.

Gabe rolled his eyes, he had gotten used to being around the omnics of the town, but philosophical talks with Zenyatta were not his favourite pastime. “I’ve been in wars all my life Master Zenyatta, I have never seen people this calm when they know an attack is coming.” He explained.

Zenyatta inclined his head in acknowledgement, “This is one of the few places in the world where humans, omnics, and cyborgs can live in harmony.” Gabe leaned back against the fence they’re standing near as Rein helped a kid get onto Orisa’s back so they can slide down again. 

“I didn’t say I don’t understand that aspect.” Gabe was starting to understand what Jesse must have felt when they got into their own talks, frustrated, annoyed, and looking for any chance for it to end.

“We are a peaceful group, true, none of us look forward to the violence that will ensue in five days time.” Gabe opened his mouth to make a comment, but Zenyatta ignored him. “But surely, if we hid, if we decided that this would be the last straw and we scatter to the far corners of the Iris, then we are letting Talon win.”

“Even if all that is true, and I’m not saying it isn’t.” Gabe conceded scratching his curls under his beanie, and absently wondered if he should bother cutting them. “Why be happy?”

“Not everyone will come away from this unscathed Commander Reyes, so it is best to make the most of our time with our loved ones while we still can.” With that the omnic monk floated over to where the children were, greeting them in a subdued but no less enthusiastic manner.

And Gabe remembered Genji telling him that Mondatta had been assassinated. That the two were brothers. Gabe had just assumed he had meant monks, but Gabe realised like a punch to his gut the true meaning. 

He shook his head as he headed off to offer the others some help. 

The nights passed in the same way it had since the first night, Jack and him talk over plans and slowly apologise and forgive for the mistakes that were made five years prior. If nothing else, at least Gabe wouldn’t die thinking his former partner still hated him.

The next afternoon Sombra approached Gabe. “You’ve got a minute  _ jefe _ ?”

Gabe rolled his eyes fondly and left Hanzo and Ana to their work before breaking off to talk to the youngest member of their team. “Jesse’s going to get jealous if you keep saying that.”

Sombra waved the thought off, “It’s better than making Morrison mad by calling you Gabe. I swear he glares at me from under his mask when I do it.” Gabe didn’t tell her, yes he does, but he figured his silence speaks just as much.

“What did you want, Olivia?” 

“Ay,  _ Sombra,  _ please.” Gabe huffed a laugh but allowed her to continue. “I’ve got some more information on Akande and why this town and the types of reinforcements he’s bringing. What do you want first?”

They’d entered the hotel that they took over as a sort of headquarters since they kicked Maximilien out. 

Gabe reached behind the bar and grabs a bottle of tequila, Sombra rolled her eyes but didn’t comment. “Reinforcements.” He responded before pouring them both a shot of tequila and taking a seat at a corner of the hotel that’s not been taken over with construction to turn the place into a stronghold.

“He’s got Talon soldiers coming, looks like something around the area of 200 soldiers.” She threw back the shot and hissed at the burn as she placed the glass back on the table. “No salt or lime?” She grinned like a cat with the cream.

“Finish the story and I might go looking for some.” He responded after downing his own shot.

“Right, so that’s all the Talon troops in the area, he’s hoping to wipe this place off the face of the map it looks like.” She’s pulled up some screens and show’s him various communique’s back and forth between Akande and various Talon leaders.

“Why?” Gabe asked, taking off his beanie and placing it off the table.

Sombra swiped through a few screens and pulled up a shot of a company logo that read: “Vishkar? What are they doing with Talon?” Gabe asked looking at some documents Sombra had also pulled up.

“From what I can see they’re using Talon to secure various business ventures for the past four or five years. If people refuse to let Vishkar ‘help’ they enlist Talon to get rid of whoever isn’t leaving.” Sombra pinched the screen and it minimized in her hands.

“Did Vishkar approach Mondatta?” Gabe asked pouring them both another shot.

“They did, and he refused. They said they wanted to improve the town, that’s what they tell all the places they take over, but Mondatta came back with some spiritual reason as to why they couldn’t.”

“And that’s when he was assassinated?” Gabe asked, swirling his tequila, a few golden drops landing on his hand.

“ _ Si _ .” 

“Fuck”

“Yup.” She popped the ‘p’ and clinks their shot glasses together before she tossed her shot back and stood up. “Don’t worry, I have some plans to make sure Vishkar doesn’t just hire another gang after we win.”

Gabe lifted his glass in her direction and downed the shot as she disappears in a flash of purple.

The tequila didn’t bring him the warmth like he was hoping it would.

That night he tried to get drunk, but the most that happens is Jack cutting him off after Gabe, Jesse, and Olivia go one too many rounds for his  _ sombrita  _ and  _ vaquero _ . The two of them were singing happily and Hanzo was laughing more than anyone else, other than maybe Jesse has ever seen, at his partners antics.

Gabe didn’t even get the tiniest buzzed thanks to super soldier serums and the nanites.

Jack still brought him upstairs to their room and tucked him in like he still can get drunk though, and Gabe couldn’t bring himself to protest.

“How’s the training going?” Gabe asked, his eyes closed, but he can feel it as Jack sat down heavily on the foot of Gabe’s bed.

“They’re not going to be soldiers by the end of it, but some of them might be able to actually hit something come Sunday.”

Gabe breathed out and he feel his chest churn when Jack made to get off the bed. Without saying anything, or even opening his eyes, his hand darted out and he grabbed Jack’s wrist.

They stayed that way for a few moments, Jack hovering a few inches off the bed and Gabe’s vice like grip keeping him in his proximity.

“What do you want, Sunshine?” Jack asked, and Gabe doesn’t call him out because at least he’s using the endearment, something he hadn’t ever expected to hear again even when they started to be less hostile to each other. 

Gabe probably should be ashamed that his response was a simple: “You.” But he didn’t even think about it when Jack settles down next to him, and his arms tentatively came to wrap around his middle. 

“I can’t sleep like this, I still have my boots and jacket on.” Jack whispered into the shell of his ear, and Gabe knew some of his curls must be getting into his white boy's mouth, but Jack didn’t complain, never did, so he didn’t move.

“So take them off.” Gabe said breathily.

“I need my arms back to do that.” Jack replied and Gabe could feel the ghost of a smile from where Jack has his face pressed into the back of his neck.

“Mmm, that’s a problem isn’t it?” Gabe teased, turning to face Jack and wrapping his arms around the other super soldier so they come to a point where an outside observer wouldn’t be able to tell where one man starts and the other ends.

Jack sighed but manages to kick his boots off and a second later they thud to the ground.

“Still need to get out of the jacket.” Jack chided, but Gabe just let out a loud fake snore and Jack pressed a kiss to the greying hairs at his temple in response.

When they woke up the next day, they didn’t say anything about the shift that’s occurred, but they both felt it, and the others do as well if Ana’s smug smirk and Jesse’s and Sombra’s punches on the shoulder are anything to go by.

Zenyatta was right: they should make the most of it while they can.


	9. The Bonding Scene(s)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I sense we are bonding."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Truths come out about Gabe's time after Blackwatch. Jack and Gabe finally make up and earn us that M rating

In retrospect Gabe should have been suspicious of how well things were going. Well, so long as he ignored their impending death that would arrive in three days time. But still, Sombra had been laying traps and calling on contacts to prevent Vishkar from being able to continue to harass the citizens of the town if things went to plan. The trenches were dug, Ana and Hanzo seemed confident about their traps. 

Jack and him had slept in the same bed for the first time in six years.

But watching Jesse attempt to train villagers and farm hands to be skilled sharpshooters was giving him a stress headache. 

“Fire!” Jesse called out to the line of omnics and humans. No one fired. It looked like Jesse was going to pull Peacekeeper out on the villagers when finally someone fired at the targets five meters away and the rest followed.

At first Gabe couldn’t believe his eyes. “Did they all hit the same spot?” He asked Jack, his voice light but his shoulders straining with unease.

“That’d be the shot Lynx managed to get yesterday. They’re the only one so far who’s managed to hit anything.” Jack explained, running a gloved hand through his snow white hair.

At this point both Ana and Hanzo joined them to watch the spectacular failure that was occuring. “Still bad?” Ana asked.

Jack just sighed and Gabe scoffed. “There’s bad and then there’s whatever this is.”

One of Lynx’s rabbit ear-like antenna swivelled back to them. 

“This many people, miss that many targets? I’m looking at a line of dead sons of bitches!” Jesse was angrily chomping on his cigarillo and he still looked like he was about to throw his hat on the ground.

“Bless their hearts.” Jack murmured.

Ana whistled appreciatively “He gets his teaching style from you Gabe.” 

Gabe just grunted in response.

While they had been doing their own collective bitching the second Shimada brother arrived and replaced Hanzo who had gone to whisper something in McCree’s ear.

“They’ll be ready by the time he comes.” Genji said sagely, sounded damn near like Zenyatta too.

“I don’t know, Sweetpea.” Jesse replied lowly, it was only his own enhanced hearing that allowed Jack and Gabe to catch the tail end of the lovers’ conversation. 

“Inspire them.” Hanzo ordered lowly as he approached the line of omnics and organics. Then he called loudly, “Jesse McCree, known for being the Fastest Draw in Blackwatch and legendary Dead Eye. He can hit all of these targets simultaneously.” The cyborg’s eyes narrowed. “You will not turn into him in the days we have left, but you will not disgrace his teachings.”

Genji had gone tense, as if he had noticed a familiarity about the stranger before him. 

“That’s impossible.” Lynx scoffed. 

“Shut up and watch.” Another villager called.

As always happened when Jesse called upon Deadeye he got a funny glow to his eye. The air around him charged and suddenly there was a crack as Peacekeeper fired, even Gabe struggled to keep up with the speed the boy fired at.

On Gabe’s other side he heard Ana mutterning about Jesse’s technique, but she was the only one who could be heard over the astonished murmuring of the townsfolk.

“Go check.” Hanzo ordered Lynx imperiously, every bit the heir of the Shimada clan Gabe had heard about when Blackwatch still investigated the group.

Lynx, hurriedly made their way over to the twelve targets and eyed each of them suspiciously. Then they turned slowly and called out. “Twelve shots.”

The row of townsfolk dropped their weapons and made their way across the field to inspect the shots for themselves. 

“Alright now, get back here and fire some more.” Jesse called as the impromptu firing range gathered more of an audience. 

As the firing practice started up again Gabe turned to Ana, “Did you and-” He glanced at Genji, it seemed the former black ops agent was the only one who hadn’t gathered his brother’s true identity. “Takeshi finish the traps?”

Ana rolled her eye. “No, we decided watching this failure needed our attention.” Gabe prepared to fire back a retort but the shorter woman came back with, “Of course we finished, we wanted to get some people to make sure they weren’t obvious.” 

From the sharpshooter’s tone and face Gabe knew that wasn’t the only thing she wanted. But he was too old for meddling, and he thought she was too. He should have known better. 

“I can help, Captain.” Genji offered. 

“Me too.” The group turned to stare at Lynx. “Mr. McCree believed me to no longer need his tutelage, besides I understand your hacker is busy so I can make sure that these traps won’t be detected if they bring their own.” 

Gabe felt the hair on the back of his neck stand on end, but he pushed it aside. “I don’t have a problem with it.” 

“It is best if you came with us,  _ Commander _ .” Gabe was pretty impressed that Lynx managed to sneer without any change in their facial expressions. 

“Sure, sure.” Gabe grumbled turning to follow the group. He turned and softened his gaze as Jack squeezed his hand. 

“Don’t be goaded into a fight.” He said fondly.

Gabe rolled his eyes, “You don’t know my life, Jack.” 

Jack huffed a laugh and squeezed his hand again before letting Gabe catch up with the others. “Fucking hell, Teacher, take that hat off, or I’m gonna shoot it off you.” Jack called to the line.

When Gabe caught up with the group, he shouldn’t have been surprised that they were arguing.

“If we move that trap, Talon reinforcements will be able to arrive and surround us.” Hanzo said shortly, his eyes trained on Lynx.

_ Goddamn teenagers making a mess for everyone _ . Gabe mentally grumbled.

“What seems to be the problem?” Gabe asked the group at large, unsurprised that Ana wasn’t getting involved even though she would get involved when it best suited her. 

“Lynx has made a valid point about how Talon forces will be able to spot this trap,” Genji gestured to a forcefield marker that would be able to be dropped as soon as it was tripped. “But, Yamada-san has made an equally valid point.” Genji turned to Lynx, “Talon beats us in numbers, if we don’t bottleneck them in then we’ll be overrun quickly.”

“I don’t want to hear petty arguments.” Gabe began when it sounded like Lynx was going to make a retort. “I want to hear solutions.”

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Genji snap to a parade rest, and Ana herself had to prevent a smile from breaking out on her face, though she wasn’t succeeding as well as she probably thought she was. 

“I can hide them fairly easily.” Lynx finally bit out.

“Good. Let’s move on, we don’t have time to fight over every single trap. Ana and Genji, you two go and look over the traps on the west side, Lynx and Takeshi you work on this side.” Gabe ordered, and it was hard to deny how quickly everyone but Ana snapped to do their assigned tasks.

“Take the Commander out of the black ops-” Ana muttered as she passed.

“Yeah, yeah.” Gabe waved her away.

The rest of the day went fairly well, although each passing moment Gabe grew more and more unsettled as he could feel  _ something _ that wasn’t Ogundimu loom over the town. 

The storm finally broke during dinner. 

Gabe had never heard of an omnic getting drunk before, but then he had made it a point to never get close to a living one before this job either. Lynx had been knocking back oil for most of the evening when they eventually started a contest with Sombra as to who was the best hacker.

While the two young hackers bickered Gabe turned to Zenyatta, “Didn’t know you folks could get this sort of-” Gabe searched his brain for the appropriate term.

“Plastered?” The monk offered serenely.

Gabe stared at the de facto leader of the town and eventually barked out a laugh. “Yeah that’s one way to put it.”

Zenyatta chuckled himself, “The oil Lynx is drinking is surely spiked with some magnets, it affects an omnics sensors and they become like a drunk organic.”

“Oh yeah? I know everything you know... Olivia!” Lynx said, their voice just a little too loud for the conversation they were having in the corner.

“Should we be concerned?” Jack asked as he took a seat next to Gabe.

“Let the kid have some fun.” Gabe replied. 

“That’s not a secret, everyone knows that.” Jesse huffed across from the argument taking place. Hanzo was pressed close to the cowboy’s side and Lynx seemed to narrow in on the two.

“The-- does the town know that you,” Hanzo tensed besides Jesse, but Jesse just pulled him in closer and leaned down to whisper in the man’s ear. “You were in Deadlock.” Lynx made a noise that was a cousin of a hiccup and Gabe raised an unimpressed eyebrow at Zenyatta.

“Fuck’s sake, you think we would have let him into Overwatch if we hadn’t done a background check?” Jack called out.

Gabe rolled his eyes and noticed that Efi and the other younger kids were being shepherded out of the dining area. While it was no doubt past an acceptable bedtime, they were probably moved along for the sake of maintaining the image of the  _ heroes _ that had come to town that they all had taken a shine to. 

“Aw, don’t act like you did a background check, Morrison.” Jesse turned to Lynx, “‘Course they know, Reyes was the one to offer me Blackwatch or jail.” There was no bitterness in Jesse’s voice, but Gabe still winced at his younger self’s attempt at saving the cowboy.

“Then-” Lynx seemed to wrack their brain, and Sombra’s eyes widened and opened her mouth to protest, but was too slow. “Do you know that your  _ Commander  _ worked with Ogundimu?” 

The room fell silent. Those who had been clearing away plates and cutlery stopped where they were only to hurriedly go back to their business and leave the room as quickly as possible.

Gabe could feel Ana’s eye piercing into his soul, but Gabe ignored it to look at Lynx. It wasn’t the best thing that the hacker could have revealed, but Gabe wasn’t going to run and hide like he figured Hanzo might’ve done had his secret been revealed.

Gabe squared his shoulders and let out a breath, “Answer their question, McCree.”

McCree turned to stare at Gabe. To others who weren’t that close to the cowboy, it would’ve looked neutral enough, but to Gabe and probably Ana if she ever took her eyes off her friend, she would see the slackjaw expression Jesse wore. “No.” 

Hanzo reached down to squeeze McCree’s hand in reassurance but McCree just shook him off as he stood up in strode out of the room as casually as he could.

“I will go-”

“Nah, I better go explain it to him.” Gabe sighed heaving himself to his feet and wincing as his knee popped.

He didn’t see, but if they were anything like they used to be, Ana and Jack exchanged a look that lasted until they both stood up and followed him out. “I’m not repeating myself, so if you want to know the story, you’re going to have to find McCree.” Gabe huffed, itching for a cigarette to mask the nanites that were flooding out of his mouth as he spoke.

“Does this have to do with-”

“Ana.” Jack interrupted her, and what a change of dynamics that was. 

They found McCree in the highest point in the village, hat pulled low and cigarillo in his mouth. “What the fuck, Reyes?” 

Gabe took his beanie off and ran a scarred hand through his hair. “It won’t sound good.”

“Of course it won’t- Motherfucker- You worked with TALON!” McCree spun on his spurred heel and walked over to Gabe, the cowboy coming eye level with him, and didn’t that make a paternal part of him ache.

“Can I explain?”

“No, you can stand there and let me yell at you!” But as the time passed on McCree said nothing.

“Can I interrupt here?” Ana asked, coming in-between the two men.

“Go ahead.” Jesse grumbled before he attempted to walk away, but he was held in place by a firm grip from Amari. 

“What the hell were you thinking?” Ana asked.

“Care to elaborate?” Ana raised an eyebrow pointedly, though her lips quirked up at the edges, so he figured she wasn’t too pissed. “I thought the best way to dismantle Talong was to take it down from the inside.” Jesse scoffed, but Gabe kept talking. “Working in the shadows did nothing, Overwatch did nothing, so I thought I would take a page out of their book.”

Gabe desperately wished to look at Jack, but kept himself from doing so. It was bad enough earning McCree’s ire, he didn’t think he could stomach Jack’s after they just managed to mend what was left of their relationship. “And then, Akande asked me to do something I refused and I was chased out. For the best probably, O’Deorain talked about doing more experiments.” Gabe let out a dark chuckle. 

“What’d he want you to do?” Jack asked, and it was the first thing he had said to Gabe since Lynx had spilled his secret; like a cat making eye contact with their owner before pushing a glass off the edge of a table.

Gabe clenched his jaw. “Doesn’t matter.”

“Sure as fuck does!” Jesse roared, once more heated up. “Winston told me about a terrorist that broke into Gibraltar, was that you?” 

Gabe nodded curtly. Internally he praised McCree for not losing the edge he had since Blackwatch.

“So what was so bad you quit when you went after  _ Winston _ .” Gabe felt the need to tell McCree the scientist wasn’t as defenseless as he seemed to think he was, but now probably wasn’t the best time.

He glanced around. Ana had a look on her face, kind of pinched, that made him think she had already figured it out. 

“He asked me to go after you.” McCree stared blankly at him, recognition on his face, but not understanding. Gabe rolled his eyes, “Christ, Jesse, you think I knew where you were cause I keep tabs on all of my ex-agents? I had to make sure you were still kicking. If I had known you gotten your own personal assassin I wouldn’t have worried so much.”

At that Jesse’s expression turned thunderous, “You would’ve known if you ever came to visit.” 

“Why would I have visited? I would’ve led Talon right to you!” Gabe growled 

“I would’ve known you weren’t six feet under!” Jesse whispered hoarsely and Gabe felt all the fight flee from him. 

“Oh,  _ mijo _ .” Gabe breathed and wrapped the cowboy in a tight hug without thinking. “I thought you knew.”

Jesse was trying his best to keep from crying, but no matter how silent he was, Gabe could still feel the dampness on his hoodie. 

The other two left them for a time until they had both settled. Only to be interrupted by Jack, “So Ana and I you’ll come after, but someone threatens your cowboy-?” Jack trailed off when Gabe turned to look at him, and was relieved to see that Jack wasn’t angry. 

If anything Gabe wanted to kiss that smug smirk off his face. “You can handle yourself.”

Jesse let out an indignant squak behind him and Ana let out a laugh. “Come on, let’s head to bed, we’ve got a long day tomorrow.”

Whatever levity had been removed from the atmosphere quickly rolled back in with a reminder that the day after tomorrow Talon would be arriving with an army to descend on the town. 

McCree made his excuse to go check up on Hanzo and Ana left with her own lewd statement about Reinhardt.

“Get out of here Amari!’ Gabe called after one particularly perverted comment, leaving Jack and him on the roof by themselves. 

They stood side by side together and listened to the quietness of the village for a while until Jack took a step back and levelled Gabe with a look he hadn’t seen in a while.

“What?” Gabe always liked to play hard to get.

Jack’s smoulder kicked it up a notch, and Gabe felt a shiver trail down his spine. “C’mon, Ana gave me an idea.”

“Talking about her and Reinhardt is not the way to get me into bed with you, Jackass.” Gabe laughed but leaned into Jack all the same as they made their way back to their room.

*******

If they had been younger and it was a battle during The Crisis they would have been more aggressive. As it was, they slowed down. Gabe refused to wonder if it just had to do with age.

Gabe explored Jack’s mouth like it was the first time he got to do it. Jack pushed him against the door once they entered their room and Gabe let out a groan without breaking their connection.

The only thing rough about the kiss was a nip to his upper lip that Jack gave as he pulled away to catch his breath. The two of them breathed the same air for a moment, and Gabe relished in the points of contact between them. 

Soon, Jack leaned in and mouthed at Gabe’s pulse point on his neck. There was another groan from Gabriel as he attempted to shove Jack’s bulky-ass jacket off his shoulders. It only managed to get to his elbows till they hit a snag.

“Nn, back off a bit.” Gabe whispered hoarsely, not even a little embarrassed at how reactive he was towards Jack’s ministrations.

Jack rumbled lowly in his throat and one of his hands snuck under Gabe’s beanie to tug at the curls there.

“Jackass-” Gabe let out a gasp as Jack tugged gently on the curls. “Hey, I’m trying to undress you here.” Gabe grunted.

Jack sighed heavily and left a chaste kiss at Gabe’s temple before he backed away.

He continued to back up and Gabe chased after him like he would disappear if some part of them wasn’t connected. Jack just huffed a laugh as he shucked his jacket off and let it land on the other bed and sat heavily on the bed they had been sharing. 

The come hither look in his cornflower blue eyes set the low burn in Gabe’s gut up to a blaze and he crossed the room in three quick steps.

When he arrived at the bed he towered over Jack who only came up to his hip like this, and he found himself hesitating. Lost in the past, he could see the Jack of seven, ten, fifteen years ago in different situations like this.

And he realised maybe Jack was seeing the same thing. While the younger Gabe had his own fair share of scars, he wasn’t a barely held together cloud of nanites that had to consume “souls” to survive. They wouldn’t without his say so but-

“Hey.” Jack whispered softly, Gabe hadn’t noticed that the other man had taken his left hand in his until he pressed a tender kiss to the knuckles there. “Where’d you go?” Jack asked as he wrapped his other arm around Gabe’s hips and brought him into the space between his strong thighs. 

“Hm?” Gabe hummed, attempting to shake out of his stupor.

“Don’t like it when you go away.” Jack said softly into his hips as he mouthed at the spot where Gabe’s skin was visible where Jack had pushed away his hoodie and black t-shirt.

“I’m right here.” Gabe protested running his free hand from Jack’s grey hair, and then gently bringing it down to trace the scar that cut across the man’s face. 

Jack sighed but didn’t say anything. Instead, maintaining eye contact, he pushed Gabe’s hoodie off and pulled upward slightly at his shirt.

Gabe felt his libido and brain and heart all arguing at once. 

“Nothing I haven’t seen before.” Jack murmured lowly as he licked a strip up Gabe’s hip bone, slowly bringing the shirt up as well. 

With a shiver Gabe gave into his dick and pulled the shirt off and let it hit the floor the same way the hoodie had.

For a moment Jack stared, and Gabe felt a self-consciousness he hadn’t felt since before SEP. (It was hard to be ashamed of your body when you went through a Captain America-esque super soldier programme.)

Gabe was shaken out of his musings as Jack kissed his knuckles again and Gabe was reminded that he had his own personal Captain America that he hadn’t been paying proper attention to.

With a dirty smirk Gabe let himself go loose and landed on Jack so that the other man had no choice but to fall backwards onto the bed. “Now who’s over dressed?” Gabe asked, entwining their hands together and biting along Jack’s jaw, giving an occasional tender kiss that wasn’t enough pressure for either of them.

“I would undress, but someone isn’t giving me any room.” Jack struggled a bit as if to prove his point but all he managed to do was rut his hips against Gabe’s and they both let out matching moans.

“No pants, now.” Gabe ordered huskily and they both backed away to comply, Jack taking off his shirt as well.

Gabe was about to spend some proper attention to Jack’s torso but the man wiggled away so that he was lying properly on the bed and Gabe made an affronted noise.

“I’m not getting back trouble just so you can fuck me at a weird angle.” Jack laughed as he pulled Gabe up and gave another gentle kiss. This time however, Gabe deepened it and gave into the hunger that had been gnawing at his belly since he saw Jack in that clearing a week ago.

He let his hand slide down and he traced old familiar scars and new ones that Jack picked up in the years since.

Every so often Jack would let out a gasp or a whine and Gabe’s pulse picked up spectacularly. 

“Want to touch you.” Jack keened.

“Do it.”

“Wanna-” Jack arched as Gabe let out a hot breath onto his length. 

“What was that?” Gabe snickered as he nosed at the point where Jack’s hip and thigh met, licking and mouthing at the area, straying near his dick but never actually touching it. 

Meanwhile Jack squeezed his hand and brought it up to suck a finger into his mouth. Goddamn, Gabe forgot about his oral fixation. 

After a while of Gabe’s teasing Jack finally had enough and brought him up for a bruising kiss that ended with Gabe on his back and Jack breathing heavily above him.

Gabe quirked an eyebrow and was about to make a smug comment but choked off with a moan when Jack bore his hips down on Gabe’s erection.

“I missed you.” Jack breathed, hand tenderly resting on Gabe’s hip, the other still clutching onto his hand.

Jack brought their hips together again and sucked a mark on Gabe’s shoulder. “Missed this.”

“Jack-”

“Love you so much.” Gabe felt tears gather in the corner of his eyes and buried his face in Jacks shoulder, wrapped his legs around Jack’s hips, and tried to get as close to the man as possible.

“ _ Querido _ .” Gabe licked a stripe up Jack’s neck to his earlobe and nibbled on it as Jack continued to rut their hips together.

After that they didn't have breath to say much beyond the occasional endearment.

And while they weren’t anywhere close to being teenagers anymore, there was something about the impending threat of death that made Gabe come quicker than he normally would’ve.

He snuck his hand down between the two of them, where Jack still persisted and used a rough calloused hand to help Jack over the edge.

When he came he called Gabe’s name, and that was sweeter than any orgasm.

Jack collapsed onto Gabe’s chest, boneless, and Gabe wrapped a hand around his shoulders and nosed into his white hair and just breathed in his scent as he waited to gain some bearings back.

When it seemed Jack was about to fall asleep, like the old man he was, Gabe pinched him in the side.

“Noooo.” Jack complained, snuggling deeper into Gabe, no doubt smearing their spend over their stomachs even more.

“I’m not sleeping like this, go get a towel.”

“You get a towel.” Jack mumbled sleepily.

Gabe sighed heavily, though secretly he loved it. But, he wasn’t lying earlier, so he deployed the dirtiest tactic in the book and stuck the finger Jack had laved earlier into the man’s ear.

Jack sprung off Gabe with a yelp and an afronnted look on his face. “Gross!”

Gabe raised an unimpressed eyebrow and gestured to their come that was drying on his stomach.

Jack laughed bashfully. “Point taken.” He looked around the floor. “You particularly attached to this shirt?” Jack asked holding up Gabe’s black shirt.

“I have others, if that’s what you mean though I’d rather you-” Before Gabe could protest further his shirt was used as a rag to clean Jack’s stomach roughly.

But when the white-haired man went to clean Gabe he was gentle and left kisses on every scar, old and new.

Gabe rolled his eyes to cover the emotions that were no doubt visible in them. “C’mon I can’t get worked up again, and we have a long day tomorrow.”

Gabe could feel Jack smile against his side and his shirt was thrown across the room. “You’re taking that down to be washed tomorrow.” Gabe chidded as he brought the covers around both of them.

“Whatever you say.” Jack yawned.

“ _ Te amo _ .”

“Love you too, Gabe.”


	10. The Deserter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sound the bugle now  
> Play it just for me  
> As the seasons change  
> Remember how I used to be  
> Now I can't go on  
> I can't even start  
> I've got nothing left  
> Just an empty heart

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Secrets are revealed at the most inopportune time. Seven become six the night before the battle.

The next day was rather subdued. There were no additional practices by Jesse or Jack and most of the townspeople spent the day with loved ones. Those who were unable to fight would be leaving the following morning well before Akande’s men were due to arrive.

  
When the sky started to darken a bonfire was lit in the centre of town and various different foods were brought out as well, and Zenyatta assured the seven that the omnics of the village would have their own party food to enjoy.

  
They weren’t separated from the villagers like they had been at other meals, but rather they all ate together. Efi and Orisa attempted to ply stories from Reinhardt and Ana. Gabe heard some stories about his time in the crusaders as well as the time Ana had saved all of their hides during a mission gone wrong in Hungary. They were censoring it a bit in deference to the engineer’s age, but for once she didn’t seem to mind the coddling. 

  
Gabe noticed that Ana’s eye was shining and then saw her excuse herself and come back with photos that she had apparently kept on her. Some were embarrassing, but most of them brought a smile to his lips. And she claimed Reinhardt was the sentimental one. There were two that as they were being passed around Gabe asked if he could keep them and Ana’s eye shined even brighter as she nodded.

  
One was a photo of him and Jack in some safe house after some mission. They both were still in their uniforms but they were huddled together deep asleep. Someone, probably Liao, had drawn on both of their faces, Just and Married. In permanent marker if Gabe remembered correctly. That was around the time he started wearing his beanie no matter the weather and Jack wore his god awful uniform beret.

  
The other was another picture from down time, but this one they both were lying in a hospital bed,  more bandages than visible skin. There was an irate doctor just out of frame, and Ana was sleeping in the chair next to the bed. It was clear one of them escaped the short distance to the others bed to keep them company while they recuperated.   
Later that evening before the sun rose on their final battle, Ana would write a letter for Fareeha, just in case. It was her routine, what she did before every mission, though she had never needed it sent before.

  
Occupying another area of the bonfire was Sombra and Lynx who this time were using their skills combined on some sort of test? Gabe didn’t understand the logistics of it,  but all throughout the day Lynx seemed to act less of an asshole towards all of them, so Gabe figured to let it go.  
Hanzo, Jesse, and Genji were all sitting together, a few of the younger village children were listening enraptured by a completely fabricated story Jesse and Genji were telling. It involved Blackwatch and seemed to take place in Venice, but there were ninjas and dragons and various shootouts at high noon. Gabe assumed the kids would pick apart the inconsistencies but rather they were the perfect audience.

  
When that story wrapped up one of the younger children turned to Genji. “Onii-san tell us a story about Japan.”

  
Hanzo tensed and shifted in his position by Jesse. Despite all of the villagers pleads he had yet to take off his mask in front of them. Several villagers had started a rumour earlier in the week that Mr. Yamada was so handsome that Jesse had his lover wear his mask so others would not be influenced by his beauty and attempt to spirit him away.  
It certainly was a prettier story than the truth.

  
But Genji didn’t notice his estranged brother’s distress and turned down to look at the brunette who asked the question. Genji’s own mask was off for the evening, and Gabe (and he knew Ana as well) were keeping an eye on the boy in case he had trouble breathing, but without it he seemed freer and no one but Hanzo avoided looking at his scarred face.

So,without his mask, Gabe was able to see the twinkle in Genji’s eye as he said, “You know, Yamada-san is from Japan as well.”

  
The gathered children gasped, and a particularly young one who was sitting on Jesse’s lap turned to Hanzo and asked, “Did you know Genji, Taky-shisan?” 

  
A concerned look flashed over Jesse’s face but he covered it with a chuckle. “Now listen here, _señorita_ , just cause they’re both from Japan-“ 

  
Jesse was cut off from his lecture when Genji interrupted him. “Yamada-san worked for my family.”  Gabe had half a mind to go over and cut whatever was going on before it happened, but he was warm against Jack’s side and Rein had shot him a look indicated his belief that the brothers needed to handle things themselves.

  
The gathered children all turned to stare at the archer in awe. It seemed they had all heard a colourful, though watered down, story of Genji’s past life in Japan. 

  
One of the older children gathered the nerve to ask, “What did you do?” 

  
Hanzo worked his jaw before replying carefully, “I was an assassin.” The children had gathered closely around Hanzo at this point.

  
“Where did you get your tattoo?” Another asked pointing to the cyborg’s right shoulder.

  
Hanzo rolled them as he answered, choosing his words carefully so as to not give the children more nightmares than they already had. “It is not a tattoo. It is a punishment.” A stillness fell over his attentive crowd, even Efi and Orisa had moved from their spot to listen. “I had “ a pause and the archer clenched and unclenched his hands which trembled slightly ontop his knees. “I had done a very bad thing, but when I realised what I had done I made to run away. The... bad men gave me this.” He gestured to the brand. The adults listening and understood the unspoken admission of how Hanzo became a cyborg.

  
“I have to say,” Genji said lightly, bouncing a toddler on his knee, “ not that I was too involved in clan politics, Hanzo always was the one to deal with that, I don’t remember hearing anything like this-“ understanding dawned on Genji’s face. “This was after-“

  
Hanzo nodded his head curtly in response. 

  
Jack gripped Gabe’s shoulders so as to not let him intervene.

  
“The elders?” Hanzo nodded again.

  
The parents seemed to understand that the conversation was not one for their children to over hear so they collected them off to bed. Genji and Jesse handed over their charges and even Efi and Orisa were herded off to bed for the night.

  
“What did you do to earn their ire, if you don’t mind me asking?” Genji’s own cybernetic jaw worked itself over, though Gabe was struck by how different this Genji was to the angry boy who had been in Blackwatch.

  
He hadn’t thanked Zenyatta for that yet.

  
“I tried to run away.” Hanzo admitted.

  
“Then it would have been Hanzo?” 

  
Hanzo scoffed, “Hardly, that brother killer had already met his deserved end by then.” His voice was bitter and cold, and it hurt those in the know with the knowledge that it was directed at himself.

Jesse opened his mouth to speak, but settled with taking Hanzo’s hand instead.

  
“Don’t.” Genji stood up and by now Sombra and Lynx had made their way over, Zenyatta carefully watching it all.

  
Hanzo shifted himself into a seiza. “He was a brother killer and a coward who could not-“

  
Without any warning Genji reached out and slapped Hanzo so hard that the other cyborg’s face mask came clean off. 

  
The hush that descended upon the party was immediate, even those without a clue as to what was happening tuned into the tense atmosphere.

  
Genji let out a string of Japanese quickly and in a dialect Gabe didn’t have a hope of understanding. Hanzo didn’t say anything. 

  
Genji said something else, his voice rising hysterically and cracking without his modulator in his mask.

  
This time Hanzo gave a terse reply and Genji looked as if he himself was slapped. When no one said anything else Hanzo stood up and walked off towards the monastery. Jesse made to follow him but Genji had turned to start yelling at his best friend in a mix of Japanese and Spanish. 

  
At this point Gabe shrugged off Jack’s shoulder and heaved a sigh. This seemed to draw Genji’s ire, “did you know?”

  
Gabe didn’t say anything, but then he didn’t need to, because his sombrita was there and answered for him, “Of course he knew. We all knew. Even Lynx knew.” The omnic protested but was ignored in favour of Olivia continuing her rant. “You just couldn’t get your head out your ass to connect the dots. ‘Oh gee, another former yakuza who shoots a bow and has a Shimada brand, who could that be?’ You didn’t know because deep down inside, you didn’t want your brother alive.”  
  
“No-“

  
“You talk about peace and redemption, but you were glad-“

  
“I forgave him!”

  
Zenyatta placed a comforting hand on Genji’s shoulder that the cyborg brushed off.

  
Sombra raised a manicured eyebrow, “Did you tell him that?” Genji’s mouth gaped open once, twice then he turned around and sprinted towards the monastery.

  
No one said anything for a while until Reinhardt clapped his hands together and proclaimed it was time to go to bed.

  
They all did as they were told, and Gabe figured that was the end of it. That if the two brothers survived tomorrow they would talk, and if not...

  
That was when Gabe’s thoughts were interrupted by a pounding on his and Jack’s door. He didn’t even have a chance to respond before Jesse and Genji both came rushing into the room.

  
It was lucky for both of them that Jack had just changed boxers and that they had seen their black ops commander in far less. “ _is he here_?“ first in Spanish then in Japanese.

  
“ _who_?” Despite the obvious of who it was.

  
Jesse just muttered, “Hanzo.” And Jack shook his head. Over their uninvited guests shoulders they could see Ana, Rein, and Sombra gathered outside the door. 

  
“I’m going to drink.” Jesse muttered, and no one stopped him.

  
“You go make sure he doesn’t get too drunk.” Gabe ordered Genji and the younger man nodded and took off after his best friend. It wasn’t an unfamiliar scene, but it sure was more complicated this time.

  
Gabe let out a heavy sigh and looked at the rest of his gathered team. “If anyone else wants to go now’s the time.”

Ana and Jack looked like he was insane to even suggest it. 

  
“My friend, life would be too boring without seeing this adventure through.” Reinhardt said cheerfully, a smile stretched wide across his face despite the depth of sadness carried in his eyes.

  
He already had Jack and Ana’s answer, this was going to be their last mission together and they were going to fight by each other's side one last time, so instead he turned to Olivia. 

 

She just smiled a little melancholic smile and said, in that cryptic way of hers he had come to know over the past week, “I’ve got nowhere else to go, so.”

  
Gabe nodded and shrugged his shoulders. “Alright.” He wanted to part it with some wise words, but the air was too somber, they were down their sniper and two of their best fighters were going to be out of sorts the next day. So instead, he cut the tension the best way he knew how, “Now get out of here so I can have we’re-going-to-die-so-we-better-have-mind blowing- sex sex with Jack.”

  
Sombra was gone in a flash of purple pixels and Ana called out a few lewd jokes of her own as she led a laughing Rein out of the room.

  
When Gabe turned back to Jack the other man had a smug look on his face. Gabe just rolled his eyes and fell onto the bed and pulled the other man down on top of him.


	11. The Darkest Hour

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I've always been lucky with One-eyed Jacks"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The final fight begins, and ends.

Dawn of the battle was a tense affair. Gabe woke entangled in Jack’s arms and sheets. They both got out of bed silently and prepared for the fight without a word to each other.

It wasn’t how they used to ready for a fight. Usually they joked, or said goodbye, or talked over the plan. But something about this day felt different, their relationship was different, and so their tradition changed. 

Both of them had already prepared their weapons for the day but that didn’t stop one final sweep of everything. 

When they were both done, Jack put on his visor and nodded at Gabe and they both left the room.

On their way out to their spots in the town, they were joined by the others. Ana and Reinhardt fell instep behind them when they left their rooms. Sombra nodded at Gabe before dashing off with her cloaking device, her part would be further out.

Jesse looked like shit when he fell instep at Gabe’s left side, Jack occupying his right, but he could walk straight, and for Jesse that was enough.

The villagers would be in their spaces already, most of them jittery and anxious and wanting the fight to be over. Only Genji and Zenyatta joined them at the entrance to the monastery. Genji had switched over to some darker armour, left around from his Blackwatch days, and while Master Zenyatta did not look armed, Gabe knew better than to underestimate the monk.

With a final breath they all split up. Gabe and Jack only looked at each other before heading off in seperate directions. 

“I can see Akande,  _ jefe _ , and he’s got the army with him.” Sombra reported from her position. The hacker had given them all similar comms to what Lynx had provided Gabe.

“Alright, fall back. Ana, are you in position?” Gabe asked from his vantage point he could see almost every bit of the town, and the dust that was being kicked up from the incoming horde of Talon soldiers.

“Yes.” Ana said, her voice firm and no nonsense.

“Alright then.” Gabe stood up from his squatted position he had held himself in. “I’m going in.” Without allowing time for a response Gabe stepped into the shadows and arrived fifty yards from where he had been standing. 

He would be the bait. It was the best plan they had, and Gabe was the only one who would be able to stay tantalisingly close enough without being actually hit.

Unless O’Deioran had come up with a solution to that problem, but Gabe figured at some point luck had to be on his side.

He could feel the ground shaking underneath his boots. He could hear the shouts and jeers from the oncoming Talon soldiers. None of them fired. Gabe took a deep breath.

They kept coming in, some had slowed down in confusion at Gabe’s seeming one man stand.

Finally, when it seemed like Gabe could hear each individual heartbeat of the soldiers descending on him, he let his nanites dissolve and one of Ana’s biotic shots went through him and shot a Talon soldier off of their motorbike they had been riding in on. 

That shocked the soldiers enough for them to narrow in on Gabe as an actual threat. 

Very few people in Talon, and certainly not these low level goons, knew about Gabe’s abilities; and they planned to use it to their advantage.

As Gabe led them closer to the town he was greeted with Reinhardt’s battle cry as the giant of a man charged into the fray, pinning a few soldiers and trapping them against a nearby mound of dirt the same man had dug with the villagers only a few days prior. 

Gabe kept heading in centre to the belltower, and when it seemed like the goons were getting distracted Gabe shadow stepped into a group of them and fired some rounds before dissolving into the shadows again.

The villagers weren’t as bad as they had been when Gabe watched their training, but he was impressed that they were actually managing to hit some of their targets.

Gabe wasn’t even surprised when he saw one omnic villager using a pulse rifle as a club.

The closer the army got to the town the more chaos they were met with. 

At one point McCree shot through Gabe and triggered a hover-car to explode and took out several harassers that had been giving Gabe a good chase. 

When he brought the main group into town, only about forty of the first force left, the rest of the townsfolk joined in.

Gabe spotted several omnics firing safely behind Orisa’s shield as she brought several soldiers to one spot, making it easier for the others to hit them. 

Zenyatta was throwing some kind of orbs at the Talon soldiers with a kind of grace that could only be obtained from years of training. Gabe didn’t spend too much time thinking about it, because it seemed like the monk could take care of himself.

Ana’s rifle was still cracking out, so he didn’t have to worry about her either.

McCree kept saving Gabe’s skin so that was another safe. 

Every so often Sombra would end up fighting by his side only to disappear in a flash of purple to take care of a soldier who was giving a member of their side a hard time with a pelt full of bullets in their nearest body part, only to be off again in another flash.

And in the background Jack’s pulse rifle was complementing Gabe’s shotguns in the harmony that the weapon’s owners had been working on for over twenty years to perfect. 

Shortly, even for the strange distortion of time that was caused from a fight, they had taken care of the first wave of soldiers that had followed Gabe in.

Akande wasn’t stupid. In fact, he was only one of the few tacticians who could go tit-for-tat with Gabe. He didn’t want to send all his men in at once. He would hold the majority of them back, then send in another wave-

“Get down!” Gabe heard from above him and a bullet was shot close to his ear that he could hear the bullet scream before it landed in its target. Whirling around Gabe came face to face with a masked Talon grunt with a knife clenched in her hand. She had come dangerously close to getting him.

Gabe looked to where the bullet had come from and was surprised, and impressed, to see that it had come from Lynx. He gave the young omnic a nod of thanks before leaning into his comm.

“Alright Amari, is he sending in the next wave?” 

He couldn’t see where Amari was, but nonetheless he got her reply, “He’s sending them around to the west side of town.” 

Gabe nodded, it’s what he figured, it was the weakest side of town, the fields were out that way. Many farmers had to abandon their livelihood for this fight.

Gabe shook off the unnecessary thought and moved through to his next position.

He felt the others follow behind him. McCree was up on the rooftops keeping pace with Gabe on the ground. Jack was further behind but still on the higher ground and Sombra was no doubt somewhere nearby. Reinhardt stayed back in case Ogundimu sent any flankers back around to the original point of attack.

Gabe didn’t have any more time to mull over tactics because he was consumed by a wave of angry Talon soldiers. Snarling Gabe unleashed his hellfire shotguns on the poor low ranking soldiers. His legs became mist and he took down a good five soldiers before moving on.

He distantly heard the ring of Jesse’s six shooter take out another ten. The kid always did like to show off.

One soldier got in a little too close and managed to punch Gabe in the sternum, not able to mist so soon after using death blossom, and the soldier having dropped his gun.

It didn’t matter how Gabe wanted to react because the soldier dropped down with the sound of Sombra’s machine pistol sounding clearly over the rest of the din of the battle. She gave Gabe a cheery wave before disappearing off again.

Gabe wasn’t able to keep track of how many of the villagers were taken down in this wave of attack. But it certainly was less than the Talon soldiers that covered the ground, though that didn’t make Gabe feel any better. 

Shaking off the thought he moved on. They stayed because they wanted to defend their homes, friends, and family. They knew the risk. There would be time to mourn once they took advantage of their sacrifice. 

All of a sudden, before Gabe could make it to his next rendezvous point, there was a monstrous yell and a streak of red out of the corner of his vision. 

From the clothes and fighting style the woman was one of Ogundimu’s assassins. And she was going after his  _ sombrita. _

Gabe snarled and was about to make his way over to deal with the threat, but a crack of a rifle called out and the assassin fell.

Gabe looked over his shoulder, suspecting that Ana would be staring down the scope of her rifle. And she was, but what he wasn’t expecting was for a tear in her armour on her right shoulder and a hiss of pain over the comms.

She must have caught him staring because in the next moment there was angry Arabic over the comms and Gabe shook his head before rushing to where Olivia had been.

He caught sight of the hacker running off to the next point and he followed after.

“He’s starting to send out the specialists, everyone be careful.” Gabe ordered over the comms and he heard the other six relaying the message to their group of villagers.

It was before what Gabe expected would be the next wave attack when there was a shout of angry Japanese and suddenly two twin blue dragons emitted down the town center and took off to where Ogundimu stood at the bottom of the hills that surrounded village.

“Brother!”

“Hanzo!”

“They brought the heavy assault!” Hanzo called over the comms, and Gabe looked back to see him next to Lynx. “He wants to destroy the entire town!”

Hanzo was no longer wearing his mask, and the man looked determined and deadly. Hopefully the right combination to finish this battle with more survivors on their side.

“Fucking hell!” Jesse swore over the comms, and Gabe looked to where the cowboy was pointing. 

Out of the blue ozone haze that had been caused by Hanzo’s destruction emerged a Heavy Assault unit. The thing stood as tall as Reinhardt, and almost completely unscated from Hanzo’s dragons. 

Gabe had half a mind to swear like Jesse, but he was stopped as he watched the monstrosity charge towards Reinhardt and Orisa. Most of the villagers made it out of the way, but Rein was clipped as the thing goes for Orisa. Luckily the young robot was readily equipped and managed to withstand the Heavy Assualt’s charge.

But something was definitely off.

But Gabe wasn’t able to deal with it, he would have to trust Reinhardt to take care of the problem and take care of his young admirer. 

In the distraction caused by the Heavy Assault and Hanzo’s surprise return, the next, and hopefully final, wave of Akande’s soldiers arrived. 

Gabe lost himself in the battle again. He kept an eye on the villagers and Sombra, but his mind was engaged both in the battle and the next two steps of possible moves that Akande may make.

Gabe was interrupted from his fight, as well as his planning by a howl and a cry of despair that came from Reinhardt’s part of town. Gabe raced over, calling over the din of the battle for the others to stay in their own positions.

He was one of the few with greater mobility, and he needed Sombra to be his eyes and ears on the battle. 

Besides she wouldn’t stand a chance against the Assault which was giving Reinhardt trouble when Gabe arrived. 

Reinhardt’s shield had broken, and his hammer was discarded to better grapple with the heavy assault. 

Gabe watched in horror as Rein looked over his shoulder to where Efi was working on some sort of repair on Orisa. The man had a determined gaze to his one good eye. His jaw worked and he cried, “For Honour and Glory!” Before charging both himself and the Heavy Assault into a trap that they had laid earlier in the week.

Gabe remembered his morbid joke about wanting the trap to be strong enough to take down Rein.

Gabe shadowstepped, and he wish he could say he moved toward his old friend, but instead, he blocked Efi from a Talon soldier that had wormed their way past the other villagers who were watching the young engineer’s back. 

Gabe heard the explosion, and Orisa’s cry of disbelief, but there was nothing he could do. The giant of a man and the best man of them all had fallen, and he wouldn’t be the first, nor the last of the day. Certainly not if Gabe let his grief consume him.

He turned to Orisa and put on his commander voice, “Get Efi out of here! What the hell are you even doing here? Go!” He picked the young engineer up and placed her on Orisa’s back and watched as the two made their way out of town to where the other children were hidden.

Gabe wrenched his sight away from the burning corpse that was Reinhardt and made his way back to town center.

He was right, this looked to be Akande’s last push. They could deal with this.

“Sniper, keep your head down!” McCree called over the comms. 

They could deal with this. 

“Down!” Hanzo’s voice was muffled through Jesse’s comm but no less unclear, as was the shot that rang out. 

The swears and endearments that came out of Jesse’s comm, muffled and hysterical, indicated all the evidence Gabe needed to leave his post and move to his son’s-

“Gabe!” Jack’s voice. Only Jack would be able to cut through this moment of panic. “He’s fine, just got knocked about, go to the next part of the plan.” 

And he was, he swore he was going to. But then he heard Jesse’s pained shout and he was at the cowboy’s side before he could even think about shadow stepping.

Looking down Gabe saw Hanzo standing in front of Jesse, arms spread like in a comic, or movie that Jesse used to watch. 

There was a gaping bullet wound in the Japanese man’s stomach, and blood dribbling out of the corner of his mouth.

Before Gabe could say anything, could stop anything. Jesse surged up, pressed a desperate kiss to Hanzo’s lips, smearing the archer’s blood onto Jesse’s mouth and beard and the man took off in a dead sprint to where the sniper was.

Genji arrived seconds after to watch his thought dead brother die.

Gabe trusted Genji to take care of himself while he went to get Jesse’s fool head out of his ass before he got shot-

“Got her.” He heard Jesse sigh into the comms just as two shots rang out.

It was funny how the world could narrow during a battle. How time could stop and everything would zero in to a vaquero’s hat falling off his head as said vaquero dropped off the side of a roof.

Sure enough the sniper had been taken care of. Some of Jesse’s best handiwork to date. As Gabe approached the cowboy’s unnaturally still body, he could see the bullet hole in the sniper’s head perfectly between the eyes.

Gabe would deal with his son later.

He had to get his revenge on Akande now.

“I’m going-”

“Stick to the plan, you jackass!” Amari called over the comms. He couldn’t tell where she was, but she wasn’t where he needed her to be.

“I-”

“Akande will come to you give him-”

Ana cut herself off with a sound that was like when someone gargled water, but distinctly not that.

Gabe looked frantically around and made for the highest point he could, to end up face to face with his best friend’s lifeless eye trained on him. But a smile on her face.

In the center of her chest, was a giant gaping hole that could not be caused by a bullet.

If only because Gabriel could see the metal gauntlet that was glistening with blood pull out of the gaping wound in her chest.

As soon as the weapon was out, Ana sank to the floor.

She wasn’t anywhere near as tall as the man who murdered her, but without her body in the way, it allowed Gabe to see the man who had killed her.

An inhuman roar tore from his mouth as he charged at Doomfist, shotguns firing so fast that even he could barely keep up with them.

He was distantly aware of the sound of Jack’s tactical visor sounding off, and hopefully clearing the rest of the smaller scale soldiers out of the way, so that Gabe could finish his fight in peace.

Fighting Akande was like fighting a MMA fighter and a snake all at once. The first part wasn’t a surprise, the man had trained in all sorts of fighting before resorting to becoming the leader of the world’s deadliest and far-reaching terrorist organisation. The snake part came from the fact that the man was cold and calculating even in the heat of battle. He would pause before he acted and dart in and out just as quickly.

At one point Gabe landed a solid shot onto the Doomfist gauntlet but it barely slowed the man down, as he lunged for Gabe’s throat and lifted him high off the ground.

Distantly, Gabe wondered if the other man was going to monologue.

All of a sudden a round of helix rockets landed next to Ogundimu’s feet and the man threw Gabe aside so that the wraith went skidding almost to the ledge and off the building before coming to a painful stop.

“Shhh.” Sombra whispered in his ear. She was cloaking herself, or one of Akande’s hits had done a number on his eyesight. 

And what would you know, when she appeared Ogundimu started his monologue. Gabe didn’t remember much, at this point he knew for a fact that one of the hit’s had been too much to take. As Sombra kept going back and forth between the Talon leader and herself, Jack helped Gabe stand up, and dropped a biotic emitter between the two of them.

Gabe looked to the side and saw Ana’s lifeless body.

He could feel the picture she had given him the night before burning a hole in his jacket pocket where it was resting.

Akande’s fight had killed Jesse.

_ Gabe had brought Jesse to the fight, he was living peacefully with his- _

Now wasn’t the time for the self-loathing that Gabe would live with for the rest of his-

“If God didn’t want them sheared, he wouldn’t have made them sheep.” Akande’s voice, and Ana’s body, and the biotic emitter sprung Gabe into action. 

He drew out a shotgun and aimed it at Akande’s head-

Jack released another helix rocket-

But it was Olivia’s bullets that reached the man first. “That was for Los Muertos you son of a bitch.”

Olivia’s reason for fighting was revealed.

And Gabe couldn’t say he blamed her. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Chingado tu madre, Cabron"


	12. Seven Riders

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "--It was Magnificent"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The aftermath of the fight for the village and decisions are made.

When the proverbial dust settled Gabe, Jack, and Olivia made their way down from Ana’s sniper nest. When they arrived they were greeted by villagers slowly peering out from their own stations.

Genji was the first one to greet them. “McCree?” Gabe’s face went tight, his mouth pinched and his eyes damp as he shook his head slowly, the sting still fresh, and probably never going to fade.

Genji hung his head in defeat, and Gabe pulled him in for a brief hug and a comforting pat on the cyborg’s back. The younger man may have had his home saved but he lost so much in this fight, same as the three of the seven still alive.

Their own moment of silence, their own little bubble of safety was broken by several villagers crying out in their own anguish, discovering that some of their own friends and family had been taken in their bid for freedom.

But that was how these things turned out.

Gabe stepped back from his comforting circle and took a cursory glance around. Rein’s body lay mangled in his armour, dented and the smell of burning flesh filling the air. The heavy assault unit itself was mangled beyond repair, and Gabe felt a twinge of pride for his fallen friend who had died doing what he loved, protecting those who needed it most.

From Rein’s body, Efi and Orisa’s, as well as the other children’s, return was marked by a strange sound emitting from Orisa, that Gabe could only assume was the omnic’s version of a wail. Efi, strong for an eleven year old Efi, pet Orisa consolingly, as her parents rushed to meet her and enveloped her in a hug, before ushering the young engineer away from the destroyed battlefield that was once the main street of their town.

Jesse’s body lay mangled in the dust from where he fell to the ground. His ratty old hat covering the bullet wound between his eyes. From the fallen vaquero Gabe’s eyes trailed up to see Hanzo kneeling, arms hung limply at his side.

“He used the dragons.” Genji muttered. Gabe turned around and raised a questioning eyebrow. “The last time he used them, Jesse said, was when we fought. He was afraid to use them again. But he did it to protect us.” Gabe couldn’t see but Genji’s voice was choked up and he knew it was due to tears, even if he didn’t acknowledge them, to allow the cyborg some pride.

Ana was still up in the bell tower. Gabe nor Jack had had the strength or the courage to bring her down with them.

Before he could mention that he was going to get her, Zenyatta floated up to them. “Thank you, Mr. Reyes.” The omnic said with more feeling than he had shown before. “We’ll take good care of your people.”

Gabe nodded gratefully at that and turned to glance at Sombra and Jack. “What are you two going to do?”

Jack’s visor had been pocketed so he could see the affectionate eye roll the man sent his way. “I go where you go.” He said, and Gabe felt his heart skip several beats at that. It was unsurprising, however. They had both found each other and especially after this fight, they weren’t going to abandon the other anytime soon. And Gabe had a feeling that death would be the only thing to make them do so.

It was Sombra’s answer that surprised him, though. “If you need a hacker, I can come along, help take down more assholes like Talon. If you want.” She inspected her nails, as her answer was nonchalant, like she didn’t care either way. But he could recognise the tell for what it was.

He smiled at her, it was weak and brittle, for the loss of those today, and for what she had gone through to get there. But he gave her a nod and pretended to ignore how she brightened at the prospect.

“My truck was destroyed in the trap though, so I don’t know how we’ll get out of here.” Gabe gestured to where Rein’s body lay. It was his truck, Gabe honestly hadn’t thought he would make it out alive to need a ride out of the town.

Jack smiled softly. “I’m sure Ana would want us to have her Jeep.”

Gabe nodded at that and turned to Zenyatta. “You know how to get in touch, if you can’t, get Lynx to get us.”

Zenyatta made a sad noise in the back of his non-existent throat. “Lynx died taking out some soldiers who were moving in on your position.” 

Gabe felt his heart clench. “You bury them with my people you hear?”

Zenyatta nodded, then stepped back to bow lowly.

Gabe and Jack turned around as one. There was nothing they needed to collect, the money would be wired to Gabe’s account, so they made their way to Ana’s Jeep, Sombra following only a few steps behind.

When they got in and Gabe adjusted the driver’s seat for his longer legs, Jack leaned over the console and gave him a kiss on his cheek. 

“Where to, Commanders?” Sombra asked, subdued, but no less cheeky than she normally was.

Gabe shrugged and looked at Jack to see if his partner had any ideas. Jack smiled softly and shook his head. 

“You decide,  _ sombrita _ .” Gabe answered, pulling out of the car’s parking space and making his way west, as they chased the setting sun.

 

The End. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HEYY! I did it omg!!! It's done it's posted. Once Cigareeyo posts the art I will link it, but for now go check out their tumblr: http://cigareeyo.tumblr.com/
> 
> Please leave comments if you liked it, this was a big part of my life for six months and I'd love to know how it was recieved. And if you did like it keep an eye out on my AO3 because my Mag7 BB will be posted in like a month as well ;)


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